Check out these socks!
Cool, huh? They were knitted by TIGSource poster Saint – he’s also knitted Aquaria socks, Fez socks, Hero Core socks, a Star Guard beanie – and he’s auctioning the whole lot off for the charity Child’s Play on ebay.
I think this is incredibly cool and generous, so I wanted to make some small contribution towards it. I’m offering a free, giftable copy of VVVVVV on steam to everyone who bids on the VVVVVV socks! Spread the word 🙂 (Here’s the VVVVVV sock auction.)
[21st Nov, Edit] The auction has ended, but unfortunately the winner bidder retracted his bid. The auction holder, Saint, is currently going through the list making eBay second chance offers. However, because they take an awful lot of time and effort to deal with, we’re only allowing so many before we rerun the auction.
I’m seeing a couple of comments here along the lines of “Oh, I made a bid and I would have totally paid!“. Needless to say I’m a bit sceptical, but if that’s true, feel free to contact Saint at the email address here, and tell him what your eBay username and bid amount was! If none of the top ten bidders pay up, then the socks will be offered to the person who makes the highest legitimate bid by email to Saint. Every bidder below the paying bidder will get a free copy of VVVVVV.
(if Saint doesn’t hear from anyone, then he’ll rerun the auction instead.)
I just bid on it 🙂
How do i get the gift?
Cool! Once the auction finishes I’ll get Saint to send me the final list of bidders 🙂
I already mentioned this on twitter, but you’ve just increased the value of those socks by $56.00!
How does it feel to have the power to magically turn socks into gold?
Hot potato!
i make a bid but i didnt get any copy of VVVVVV this is ridiculous
Avant, you don’t deserve it, since you clearly don’t even know how to read.
The auction doesn’t finish for like 9 days, so you wont get it for a while.
(Also they were up $56 when I posted last, it’s more like $180 now. Just so I don’t seem stupid r nutin’.)
@Yeti Seeking Yeti – It’s quite a surprise! I’m gonna have to ask Valve to generate more keys 🙂
@avant – For several reasons, I have to wait for the auction to end before I can start sending out copies. Sorry. It’s a ten day auction and this is only day one!
Fantastic idea! And holy crap those are some expensive (though awesome looking) socks now!
Erm… is anyone else slightly worried that the last person to bid will either be some jerk who won’t pay or some idiot who can’t? I mean anyone bidding on this has been too miserly or poor to cough up a few dollars for a copy of VVVVVV so what are the odds they aren’t going to back out of a deal to pay a few hundred dollars for socks depicting a character from a game they haven’t played yet? Okay it is for charity which improves the odds no end but I’m still rather concerned.
@Persus-9 Yeah, I’m feeling the same way. Hence, the “Hot potato” comment. When I bid at $155 I was a little concerned that no one else would bid for 9 days :). My guess is that at the end of the auction, some people who can spare the money will bid seriously. If you look at the Humble Indie Bundle (https://www.wolfire.com/humble), 8 people paid over $400 dollars.
@bubble it’s already there ($400) 😀 think these might end up being the most expensive pair of socks in history…
Yeah, please don’t bid on this unless you’re willing to pay up. It would be incredibly bad form. It’s for charity after all people. This is a charity auction; the game is just a nice bonus.
:-p I bid and within a few minutes I was outbid. This thing will probably sky rocket.
Creeping up to $1000. !!!
$1425 😐
i hope the winner pays and doesn’t do a runner
I really hope that everyone honors their end. I hope the buyer honors his bid, but I also hope that the person who said they would give the steam keys to every bidder actually does so vs backing out after realizing how many people are bidding.
MSIMagus,
“The person who said they would give the steam keys to every bidder” is Terry Cavanagh, the creator of the game.
Yeah, I don’t think Terry is actually losing anything by giving his game away.
Also, does ebay have any sort of protection against people doing runners like that? I know it’s against the law not to pay, but do they actually enforce this?
I’m pretty confident people bidding at this price will want them for the charity aspect and the lulz of having a $2000ish pair of socks anyway. Come on, humanity, don’t let me down.
Bidded 😉 nice action 🙂 regards from Spain.
so today a lot of people were happy to bid hundreds and thousands of dollars and now the highest bidder is a new user with 0 feedback? looks like shenanigans to me D-:
I’m curious what happens if the top bidder fails to pay – does it cascade downwards to the next highest bidder, until somebody pays (and “legitimizes” all the bids below his own)?
@Souleye: Yep, exactly – let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, though.
I’m genuinely worried about this now – I hardly believe anyone is willing to pay the $3500 that they are now going for. It’s such a shame too, given that it’s for charity. Makes me rather angry actually.
SoulEye – if the top bidder doesn’t pay, there is no way to force them. What then happens if that the next price down can be offered to the next person. If they turn it down, I believe nothing more can be done.
I honestly think that if the socks don’t sell, none of these people should be given copies of the game. I understand that many of the bidders will be genuine people who were willing to pay the price if they won, but it’s obvious that the majority of the bidders were in it for the game and couldn’t care less about the charity.
/raaaant 😀
@Mike – Are you sure about that? That totally sucks! I was under the impression that you can have as many retractions as you want – if not, then this is obviously just going to end badly 🙁
I second the comment that if the socks do not sell, no one should get the free game.
Ya, this is crazy! I hope the highest bidder actually pays, Its messed up that people are bidding just to get the free game!
Yes, I believe if the auction does not work, it’s alright not to give the games either. Or it can be reset/retried, hopefully with more serious people (I did not bid at $1000, and I will not definately bid at $4,500 – I don’t have such kind of money).
Even if they redo the auction, I think they should forgo the bonus VVVVVV copy. It just incentivizes phony bidders only in it for a freebie. I can’t foresee a way to give free bonuses to all bidders in an auction and still have it be a success. I’d love to be proven wrong, though, since this is for charity.
The thought to give the bonus game was great, guys, but this is going to suck if the winning bidder refuses to pay.
Take a look at your bidder history and denote how many NEW USERS bid on this auction. One person in particular, who was the very first bidder, inflates the auction at random intervals. And there are so many NEW USERS with the NEW USER ICON bidding that you know people are just registering, bidding to get the free game, then forgetting about their account regardless of whether or not they win the auction. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are using fake addresses, too.
What you should do is CANCEL THIS AUCTION, RELIST IT, and GIVE GAMES to people who bid UNTIL THE PRICE REACHES A CERTAIN POINT ($250, perhaps) so that serious bidders won’t have to pawn their own children for this charity.
PS: No, I did not bid. I do not want to risk paying $5,300 for socks, and I am above the lowlifes who registered new accounts to get a $5 game for free.
I’d have to say that it would be a bit unfair to not give people the game at this point. He clearly stated that ‘if you bid, I’ll send you a copy of the game for Steam.’
Maybe it was a bit premature of him, not knowing eBay rules exactly, but he did commit to it.
A great deal of people felt a bit of risk actually bidding 200 or 300 dollars on it, and they were willing to pay that amount, too. It wouldn’t be quite right to squash their excitement, would it?
In any case, I hope it sells. That would be fantastic.
I think it’s perfectly acceptable to not shell out the game if the socks don’t sell; after all, the bidding will continue (albeit in a different listing) as the socks won’t have been sold.
I find this terribly saddening, it’s for charity for pete’s sake. I think it’s a really low chance of people paying up, which is a shame because it’s such a nice gesture. Sockgate indeed. Can the end of the auction be brought forward? On the off chance someone DOES pay this is a huge amount, so I don’t think anyone would mind if it stopped here.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Even on cheapassgamer, there’re people saying that they gambled on a high bid but would be willing to pay if it came to that, like
“Did it for the sake of charity. In the end, we aren’t the only ones bidding. Donations are great for tax season, and there’s a lot of people looking forward to that. I’m 3800. “
just ha-ha
This is getting eerily out of hand… $5900 as I type this.
And there was me worried I might end up paying $55 for a pair of socks!
Nice to see that the top bidder at the moment has 142 100% positive feedback rating: maybe there’s hope yet.
The auction just jumped up to $9100… that’s insane but highly doubtful this will actually sell now to a legit buyer.
This free game for bidding on socks for charity has received an enormous amount of publicity. That’s good for VVVVVV and for the awareness of this charity auction. There’s still a week left, this might make the national news soon. ANY publicity like this is good publicity. No need to complain folks, this is a bonafide success now. Thanks Terry!
I was going to bid…. but then I saw how ridiculously high it was and knowing my luck noone would bid after me xD
As far as I see it either two things will happen. The top bidder will actually pay 10 grand or whatever it is for a pair of socks, or he won’t. Considering that the top bidder at the moment is an ebay user with zero previous purchases seems like a great big red light denoting the likelihood that he/she won’t pay anything.
Terry is under no obligation to hand out the free game if it transpires that this is nothing more than a cynical scam by a few low life’s looking for a free game.
But if it does emerge that someone is willing to pay 10 grand for a pair of socks, expect articles in national newspapers. Which would be very good publicity!
There is one major thing you can do:
It’s possible to restrict bidders on the auction. You can say for example, min rating, no unpaid items – or at most 1-2, etc.
You might want to consider these options. If someone really serious with 0 feedback wants to bid, he can contact you directly.
The bids have reached a frightening sum, despite the thing is quiet now. I can tell some people are worried about an unhappy ending here, but I think we should focus on the positive aspects of the situation. First, the whole story is pretty striking and I’m sure there will be media willing to give publicity to it (not to forget that it is a charitable cause, and that ‘sells’). They just need to be aware of it. This will probably attract more bidders, enhancing the chance of a real-real (I mean ‘trustable’) high bid. Second, it is worth to mention that this VVVVVV-themed socks are not the only one item being auctioned by Saint. He is auctioning several models of socks (some of then even nicer than the VVVVVV pair) and a couple of beanies. The publicity may raise the price of all this other stuff. If the vvvvvv socks become the most expensive pair in the world, who knows, perhaps the rest of the models become valuable rarities as well. Just in case, I placed a bid on my favorite design and I’m winning. I won’t tell which one it is 😉
Let’s have hope, people.
I love the comment “I was going to bid”¦. but then I saw how ridiculously high it was and knowing my luck noone would bid after me xD.” It clearly shows you’re actually not interested in paying so much, yet you want to try to inflate it like so many other people.
It’s funny to see the whole ‘Paying x amount for socks.’ comment. You’re not paying for socks. You’re donating to Child’s Play, and the socks are an added bonus. Much like the rest of handmade articles of clothing. Basically, if you were planning on actually donating (unlike Creeping Death there) you could probably bid on the other items. Leave the VVVVVV socks up to serious bidders. I’m glad it’s reaching a high amount, since this is going to weed out those who don’t want to pay.
[…] distractionware — Saint’s Yarn “Check out these socks! Cool, huh? They were knitted by TIGSource poster Saint – he’s also knitted Aquaria socks, Fez socks, Hero Core socks, a Star Guard beanie – and he’s auctioning the whole lot off for the charity Child’s Play on ebay.” […]
I don’t think the whole “Paying x amount for socks thing” is actually incorrect. In reality you aren’t donating, but the vendor of the socks is donating. If people were really just donating then it wouldn’t really be an auction, it would be a donation drive.
You even pointed out in you own comment that people were paying for something, not simply giving money away.
Anyways, I don’t think this is going to turn out badly. It seems like there are some serious bidders, and those that were not (but bid high anyways) dropped their bids. The current bid seems to have been going strong for a while now, and the bidder has 60 positive feedback I believe.
High Hopes
I think if the winning bidder backs out on this that Terry should try and have a charity sale through steam. Contact Valve and see if you can work out a sale with the game going for $3.00ish with all proceeds going to charity.
I realise that no-one is actually buying socks, they are donating to a charity. But the reality is that a lot of people have bid solely because they want a free version of the game.
I didn’t get my copy 🙁
You should only let people with positive feedback bid on this item cuz people can just make accounts and never pay
Just after Saint said that only the top 10 bids will be taken in account to ease the process, it seems that one or several individuals started to create new (fake?) accounts and bid. Well, if it is what it seems to be… it’s sad, so sad.