MarkPrince Moderator Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 4,653 Location: Vancouver Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Frankenstein'ed LM Linea Grinder: Anfim Super Caimano Vac Pot: 1922 Silex Drip: Krups Moka Brew Roaster: Hottop
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 3:53pm Subject: Holiday Gift List and Fundraiser - first week update!
Hey CoffeeGeek folks - here's your weekly holiday gift list and fundraiser update! If you have any feedback, questions, comments, typos to point out, suggestions to make, please feel free to respond to this thread.
Auctions First up is the auctions so far. In a word: wow. I look at the progress this week, and as of this writing, we've already raised $1,327. What makes that so remarkable is that, barely a week into the Holiday Gift List this year, we've already passed the halfway point to beating how much was raised in the entire 2004 Silent Auction Program ($2,412 raised that year). And the great thing is - we've got even more spectacular offerings coming up. We're not done by a long shot - in fact, you haven't seen anything yet. The heavy hitters are going to start very soon.
If you haven't listened to the latest CoffeeGeek Podcast yet, I encourage you to do so - there's a major sneak preview look at what's coming up in the next week in Auctions. And here's more details on some of them, and a new one that I didn't talk about on the Podcast:
Illy Aliens - Artists' Proof Set 1st in Coffee has a few things in the auction, but this one is beyond special - James Smith has in his possession a very special set of the Illy Collection: Aliens, by David Byrne. This is a "Artists' Proof" set, and I believe there's less than 10 of these in the world - all were originally given to the artist (David Byrne!). It comes in a very special packaging - the container is shaped like a space ship. The last time I saw one of these on eBay, it fetched around $1,200. And we have a set that will be going up for auction. I've enclosed some photos below.
All Expenses Paid Trip to Origin I almost welled up when I got the email on this one. Duane Sorenson at Stumptown has offered up this absolute jewel of an auction. You'll get a chance to bid on making a trip to Origin - to Guatemala in the third week of January, 2007, as Duane's guest and sidekick. Stumptown will pick up all the tab - your airfare from Portland to the country (and back), your hotel, your 3 squares a day. You'll be visiting finca el injerto in HueHue, the farm that won the Cup of Excellence this year. This is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. The only catches are you have to get to Portland to fly out, and the time is fixed - 3rd week in January. The trip will be for five days. Duane's cost on this is around $1,500 or so at least, but the fact that you'll be immersed in a world and appreciation of coffee, and do so with one of the most respected people in coffee - that can't have a price put on it.
Other Auctions So much stuff - we have roughly two new auctions starting every day. Auctions are typically 3 days long for under $100 value, 4 days long for over $100, and 5 days for unique items (like the two above). In this coming week we have another Grindenstein auction, the complete set of Bumper products (knockbox, tamper, tamper stand, shot glasses and frothing pitcher), another coffeelab pink tamper, 3 months of Kona Coffee, a Technivorm Moccamaster thermal brewer, espro tamper with a unique red handle, 1 on 1 training with a WBC judge and world latte art competitor, and much, much more.
Fund Raiser Update We hope we'll be announcing a seventh company to come on board as a dollar for dollar matching sponsor in our Direct Donations Program for CoffeeKids. stay tuned for that.
Every donation counts - whether it's $2, $5, $10 or more. If you donate $5, we'll have another $30 ($35!) to match it, making your $5 contribution equal up to $40 given to CoffeeKids. Please don't hesitate to donate anything you can afford. Bill Fishbein will be in this forum section tomorrow giving us our first update on how much has been donated so far.
The Gift List! Of course, this all started back in 2000 on CoffeeKid.com (not to be confused with CoffeeKids.org) as a simple way to tell your friends and family the coffee and espresso related things you really want for Christmas. It's grown so much, and we've added some new products this week to the List after it launched, and will be adding more products every week.
I'm glad to see more than a few people using the Wish List - looks like we've had over 500 mailings of wish lists so far, which is actually higher than the total number in 2004! If you haven't used it yet, here's how it works. On every product listing within the Holiday Gift List, you'll see a few links to something saying "Add to Wish List". You'll also see "View Wish List"
If you see a product you like, click the Add to Wish List link, and we'll automatically create your own custom wish list of your favourite items. You can add your own comment about the item, give it a ranking from 1 to 10, and save the wish list. As your wish list builds, you can visit and view it any time, and edit it. You can also easily email your wish list to anyone you want - just hit the "email wish list" link and a popup window will appear, letting you type in your own custom message, and all the email addresses you want to type in. Hit submit, and CoffeeGeek will fire off an email to your recipients. They'll get a link to view your wishlist, and discover all the great things you've picked.
Wish Lists are also tagged to your Profile page once you create one, for the duration of the Holiday Gift List run. You can view mine simply by visiting my Profile Page or by going directly to my Wish List. The link is simple - it's coffeegeek.com/members/yourusername/wishlist. Pretty simple!
Site Speed Site speed is always a problem at CoffeeGeek (I know - and I'm handcuffed in many ways but we're always working on it). We've seen a 35% increase in traffic this week - some due to a major article in 65+ newspapers around the US an the world, some due to frenzied bidding in the auctions. We ask you to "bare" (grin) with us on this. We're on top of any downtimes, with several people ready to pull the SQL trigger if there's any prolonged issues.
FeedBack Nothing works as well as it can without feedback, comments and suggestions - I'd like to hear yours. You can respond to this thread, or post something new in the Holiday Gift List Forums section. I'd love to hear from you on anything involving the HGL, but here's some suggestions:
- any products you think should be listed in the HGL but currently are not? - what functionality would you like to see in next year's listing? - what auction items you like the most, or what would you like to see more of? - throw out a challenge! Challenge a neighbourhood cafe to do a fundraising scheme to donate through our direct donations page, challenge baristas to donate their tips for a day, challenge consumers to donate a portion of their machine purchase amount to CoffeeKids, whatever interesting challenge you may come up with. - tell us about your interesting way of raising money for CoffeeKids, or making a donation.
Posted Wed Nov 29, 2006, 12:54am Subject: Re: Holiday Gift List and Fundraiser - first week update!
I was so amazed to hear what Duane was donanting to the auction. I know this is a little gushy but I feel honored to be able to frequent his cafes (and the Annex, which is amazing). I've always had such a huge amount of respect for that man, and this just kicks that up another notch. It looks like the upcoming auctions are just getting better and better. I can't wait to see what else shows up on the list. And thanks Mark for putting this all together. It's cool to see so many people getting together for such a great cause.
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