Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Thank you for posting the updated information regarding this auction. I'm glad to hear it's "official".

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0619455525

Dave M.

Apparently, Adam Hugh's wife Allison did not bother to check into the facts behind the auctions before making her comments. After four years of raising funds for the CF Foundation through the auctioning of sketches and original artwork generously donated by professionals in the comic industry, Elveen might have assumed that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation stamped into the material of the backing boards upon which the drawings are done would be evidence of the intended recipiant of the proceeds of the sales, and so the detailed story behind the fundraising was dropped from the auction descriptions. Maybe the comment on the funds being donated to the CF Foundation was unintentionally left out. Maybe ebay has posted a new rule forbidding privately sponsored fund raising auctions. To compare what Elveen is doing to the purely selfish profiteering of the ebay scavengers that go to the conventions and collect all the free sketches they can get just to turn around and sell them on ebay for persnal gain is pretty harsh.

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

All of us here at Team Alyssa want to give a very special thank you to Christian Calero for his (and his sketch partner gatherer) incredible work at the San Diego Comic Con where he gathered a substantial number of comic book character sketches from some VERY high profile artists while he was in attendance. Thank you Christian (Elveen) !!!

List of message threads concerning Elveen's auctions....
March 2009 auction

September 2009 auction

May 2010 auction

February 2011 auction

I am waiting to see if my message I sent to the Adam Hughes' Group on Yahoo is allowed since it includes links to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and disagreeing remarks which might impede their bashing of Elveen's auction.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hughes-fa ... ages/40700

Oh, and here is a link to the sketch "donated" by Adam Hughes:

This should bring a couple dollars for the cause

I am attempting to post a reply over at the Adam Hughes yahoo group but I am having a problem doing it. (I've never posted at a yahoo group)

But for the public record. Here is what I typed out.


Good day everyone.

This is Elveen.

I was over at the Usagi boards posting an update about the Usagi Cystic Fibrosis sketch I have up right now. (Stan asked me to post over there and has even put my auctions in his personal blog). When I was over there, there was a thread that was referencing the situation over here.

I want to come and clear up any misconceptions. (some of this has been said already, but I wanted everyone to hear it from me)

First and most important, ALL, 100% of the money raised from these auctions (not counting the ebay and paypal fees) is donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Website located here:

http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/dsp_Do ... User=90565

As stated I am mentioned in the website, here is the quote:

"All of us here at Team Alyssa want to give a very special thank you to Christian Calero for his (and his sketch partner gatherer) incredible work at the San Diego Comic Con where he gathered a substantial number of comic book character sketches from some VERY high profile artists while he was in attendance. Thank you Christian (Elveen) !!! "


Now a bit of history.

One of my very good friends has a daughter, Alyssa (the girl on the web page) and she has Cystic Fibrosis. So he started auctioning items for CF research. When I "met" him on the Valiantfans.com boards he had already started these auctions. Well, we became fast friends. A few years ago (I think 4) he went out to SDCC and got a few sketches to auction off. They did pretty well on ebay.

Fast forward a few months later and he realized that he was not going to be able to make it out to SDCC the following year. This was my opportunity to do something to help. I told him that I would go in his place and attempt to gather some sketches to auction. I was able to do just that and I was able to donate just over $1,000 to the Great Strides website. I went back the next year, and did the same. I was able to raise $2,230 (I think that is the number). So, of course, this year I headed out to SDCC to keep gathering the sketches.

Here is how I got the Adam Hughes sketch currently up for auction.

Mr. Hughes was signing at the DC booth, so I waited in line and approached him (I had gotten a sketch from him previously and, obviously, it did well for us, so I for sure wanted to get another). He told me that he could not sketch at that time but that he was going to be sketching later at his booth and I should head over there and get the information.

So I headed over there and got all the info, times and what not. If I remember correctly, Mr. Hughes was sketching for a small donation for sheep dog rescue. So I got in line and made the donation and got the sketch. Now, I told Mr. Hughes and the people in the booth that my sketch was going to be auction off for Cystic Fibrosis. At the time I had all my paper work "proving" that I was legit, and showed it to everyone there. Mr. Hughes did the amazing Power Girl sketch and I was stoked.

As I was leaving I actually talked to Allison and I asked her if she would do a sketch for us. If I remember correctly, she said that she could not do one right then but if I left a board she could do it later that night and I could come back the next day and pick it up. GREAT I said.

So I came back the next day to get the sketch that Allison did (and I do not remember exactly how this went down), but the other lady (I can't remember her name, I'm sorry) thought the board was for Adam to sketch on so after he was done sketching for the Sheep Dog rescue, she had him do another sketch for me. Meaning that I did not get a sketch from Allison and that I do not have a picture with the second sketch and Mr. Hughes (he was at a panel I believe, or something). But I do remember talking to Allison about how cool it was that Mr. Hughes was sketching. I remember her saying something about them getting sold on ebay for profit and I said something like,

"Well you know I am going to sell mine for charity."

And she responded with "yes".

Now I am not sure if Allison will remember this, but maybe she will. (Allison I am the tall guy [I'm 6'5] with a buzz hair cut)

I just want to share all of this to be as open as I can.



Next, why do I not mention the charity in the auction?

After I got the sketches the first time from SDCC and it was time to auction them off, I had not yet become an ebay seller with a store like I have now. (in fact the first thing I ever sold on ebay was a Cystic Fibrosis sketch). So I asked my friend (with the daughter) what to do. He helped me set it up and told me that ebay would not allow him to auction stuff for CF (they had pulled some of his listing I believe). so he told me that he puts a blue CF at the bottom, but to not mention that it is for charity as ebay has some stringent rules. He told me he had contacted them and there was a bunch of things he needed to do and whatever, so when he listed, he just took out the charity part. So I have always done the same. I have never checked with ebay, but my friend is man who has dedicated his life to raising money for CF, so I believed him.

Maybe there is a better way for me to do the auctions and have the charity listed. I do not know. I have done it this way for the last 2 years, so I figured everything was ok. I do know that there is a fund raising goal that my friend has on his great strides page and not sure how all of that would work. I have thought about contacting ebay about the charity issue the last few days because I received a few messages from ebay members asking "Is this for charity?"..... now I know why.


A few last things.

I hope that by sharing and providing the links to the Great Strides page that mentions me, I have cleared up any questions about the intentions of this sale. I brought a copy of the web page, along with other documentation with me to SDCC to show the artists that I am legit. I understand that some people are scoundrels and have no problem lying for profit. I can also understand the initial reaction to the Power Girl auction. I hope things are clearer now.

Also, I am truly saddened that my auction might cause another legit charity to be turned down by Mr. Hughes in the future. It is unfortunate that there are people that are willing to take advantage of others, like ask for a sketch for a fake charity and sell it for profit. Hopefully, if some one approaches Mr. Hughes, and can prove they are a legitimate charity that he will consider donating to the cause.


If there are any other questions, please contact me on ebay and I will answer any question.

I will end with this. On our forum, (Valiantfans.com) we say that CF might stand for Cystic Fibrosis, but one day, CF will stand for Cure Found!

Elveen wrote:why do I not mention the charity in the auction?

After I got the sketches the first time from SDCC and it was time to auction them off, I had not yet become an ebay seller with a store like I have now. (in fact the first thing I ever sold on ebay was a Cystic Fibrosis sketch). So I asked my friend (with the daughter) what to do. He helped me set it up and told me that ebay would not allow him to auction stuff for CF (they had pulled some of his listing I believe). so he told me that he puts a blue CF at the bottom, but to not mention that it is for charity as ebay has some stringent rules. He told me he had contacted them and there was a bunch of things he needed to do and whatever, so when he listed, he just took out the charity part.

Glad to see your reply, sorry you got hit with someone not thinking your auctions were for charity because they were not listed that way. The way you mentioned USED to be the only way you could list for charity, because eBay did have those stringent rules regarding those listings, but now they have a charity selling area incorporated right into eBay, of which the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is already listed, with many charity auctions benefiting them already...
http://donations.ebay.com/charity/chari ... NP_ID=4135
BEST part of listing it via their charity section, if you say that 100% of the proceeds will be given to the charity, eBay will refund 100% of the listing and final value fees to you!
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/GivingW ... olicy.html
The buyer pays you (you can include your shipping fee amount in the amount you request to be paid), then you pay eBay, and eBay give the charity the funds. For this "wonderful" service (note sarcastic quotes) eBay will deduct 20% of the amount you pay them before forwarding it on to the charity you have chosen. This goes to their own "Mission Fish" charity to pay for administering the charity auctions. That may seem excessive (I certainly think it is), but it allows people to know that they are bidding on a real charity item, and may in fact result in larger bids. I've seen your auctions myself in the past, and I always thought you were a store that had bought the sketches from a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation signing that had taken place in San Diego, and then were selling them on your own. If I've thought that, I'm sure at least some others thought something similar, or at least didn't think the funds from the auctions were being donated to charity because it wasn't mentioned anyplace in the auction. You'll have to decide yourself how to list them in the future, but now you have some options, and more fans now know that these will really benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, no matter how they get listed.

Dave M.

fiawol wrote:

Elveen wrote:why do I not mention the charity in the auction?

After I got the sketches the first time from SDCC and it was time to auction them off, I had not yet become an ebay seller with a store like I have now. (in fact the first thing I ever sold on ebay was a Cystic Fibrosis sketch). So I asked my friend (with the daughter) what to do. He helped me set it up and told me that ebay would not allow him to auction stuff for CF (they had pulled some of his listing I believe). so he told me that he puts a blue CF at the bottom, but to not mention that it is for charity as ebay has some stringent rules. He told me he had contacted them and there was a bunch of things he needed to do and whatever, so when he listed, he just took out the charity part.

Glad to see your reply, sorry you got hit with someone not thinking your auctions were for charity because they were not listed that way. The way you mentioned USED to be the only way you could list for charity, because eBay did have those stringent rules regarding those listings, but now they have a charity selling area incorporated right into eBay, of which the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is already listed, with many charity auctions benefiting them already...
http://donations.ebay.com/charity/chari ... NP_ID=4135
BEST part of listing it via their charity section, if you say that 100% of the proceeds will be given to the charity, eBay will refund 100% of the listing and final value fees to you!
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/GivingW ... olicy.html
The buyer pays you (you can include your shipping fee amount in the amount you request to be paid), then you pay eBay, and eBay give the charity the funds. For this "wonderful" service (note sarcastic quotes) eBay will deduct 20% of the amount you pay them before forwarding it on to the charity you have chosen. This goes to their own "Mission Fish" charity to pay for administering the charity auctions. That may seem excessive (I certainly think it is), but it allows people to know that they are bidding on a real charity item, and may in fact result in larger bids. I've seen your auctions myself in the past, and I always thought you were a store that had bought the sketches from a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation signing that had taken place in San Diego, and then were selling them on your own. If I've thought that, I'm sure at least some others thought something similar, or at least didn't think the funds from the auctions were being donated to charity because it wasn't mentioned anyplace in the auction. You'll have to decide yourself how to list them in the future, but now you have some options, and more fans now know that these will really benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, no matter how they get listed.

Dave M.

Thanks for this reply.

I did add the following to this weeks sketches.

This auction is in honor of Alyssa. You can read about her here: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/dsp_Do ... User=90565

It is listed at the bottom.


Finding out about the 20% ebay takes for their service.... there is no way I will change the way I run the auctions.

Thanks for the info.