Shep Korvin - Blog is the new Black

Offer: Free Bidboxes for Charity use!

My BidBox "micro-auction" system got released a few weeks ago... but I was going through one of my useless non-blogging phases, and totally forgot to mention it here. Anyway... the system has been gradually gathering momentum amongst early-adopters, and I've recently had quite a few enquiries from people who would like to use BidBox to operate auctions for charitable causes (especially with the 2007 Relay for Life looming on the horizon).

To this end, I've made a new "charity" version of the BidBox - which I'm making available free of charge for non-commercial use at fundraising events. The bidbox differs from the regular version in only a couple of minor ways. Firstly, it displays a floating "CHARITY AUCTION" sign above the box, so that people don't cheat and use these things for commercial purposes (if you see anybody doing that, please let me know!!!), and secondly, the charity version is only usable for a limited amount of time - they're hard-coded to expire once the related event is over, so that (a) the user doesn't have to mess about returning them to me post-event, and (b) I don't have to worry about a bunch of freebie charity bidboxes escaping into the shady after-market of commercial exploitation...

Anyway, if you're running a charity event, and you'd like to use the bidbox system as part of that event, just drop me an IM with your event date/duration, the charity (or relay for life team) that you're supporting, and the number of BidBoxes that you'll need, and I'll sort something out :)

And for those of you who just want a bidbox for good, old-fashioned, commercial profit-making purposes... they're on sale at Lucky Designs, for the bargain price of only L$250 a unit! ... if you want to see them in action, check out the "Who's using bidbox?" sign in the store - it's updated with a real-time feed of all the (commercial) bidbox auctions taking place around the grid!

Better than virtual chocolate...

You might've spotted these popping up at various SL stores over the course of the last week... Lucky Easter Eggs! Basically, they're a cross between a traditional easter egg hunt, and the "Lucky Letter" system that operates on Lucky Chairs. Once installed, the "Lucky Egg" system makes fancy easter eggs pop up at random locations around your store... each egg has a different letter floating above it; if you find an egg that's showing your initial, click it to claim a prize. Eggs constantly appear and disappear throughout the day - keep searching, you never know where the next one might be!

I've installed the system at LapGirl Boutique, where it'll run until the end of Easter weekend, with several different outfits up for grabs... and there's been a strong take-up of the system from other merchants, so hopefully there'll be plenty of other venues where you can go hunting for Lucky Easter eggs very soon! If you'd like to install Lucky Eggs at your own store, the full system can be purchased from Lucky Designs - it's completely automated, and can be installed in minutes... all you need to do is add some prize items.

Have a great easter!