One of the great things about FTB is that nobody can imagine PZ Myers rolling around on the floor in a pile of money, collected from this blogging network, muttering, “mine all mine! oh! a spider!” You’re helping a dedicated community of people like yourself, i.e.: its for your own good. We’re your people.

This is to help defray FTB’s legal debts from Richard Carrier’s defamation lawsuit. Details and rules are below:

The #4 Kiridashi

Auction Closed at $51! Congratulations to the Winning Bidder!

This is a kiridashi knife made with a 1095 high carbon steel edge laminated to a hunk of “suminigashi” (water pattern steel) made of a mix of mild steel, 15N20, 1095 and W-2 tool steel. It’s tough and it’s pretty.

Bidding starts at: $5

You can bid in the comments, or bid by emailing me [link]. If you email, I will assume that you wish to remain anonymous and will post a comment in the bidding section that reads something like: “Anonymous bid in the amount of $___” I do not live glued to my email so it may take a while for an email bid to register.

Whoever bids the most for the Kiridashi ins it for $1 more than the second highest bidder bid. For example, if I bid $75 and Joe bids $5 and I’m the highest bidder, that makes Joe the second highest bidder, and I win the thing for $10 – the bidding start price. This is a variation of the Ebay bidding algorithm and, while it is less effective at milking money from the bidders, it discourages people from feeling that they need to log in at the last minute and try to bid over someone else. At the time when bidding closes, whichever bid is the highest, whether it’s email or a comment, wins.

Since we don’t have an automated bidding system like Ebay, I’d like to discourage “auction sniping.” If you want the thing, bid what you’re willing to pay for it and just see what happens. If you simply must have it, bid $1million for it and if the second highest bidder had bid $50, it’s yours for $51.

If you do not win, you owe nothing!

The winner is expected to donate the agreed-upon amount to the defense fund and send me suitable proof (a screenshot or whatever) and give me a shipping address, at which point I’ll box it up and send it along! I will cover shipping unless you are on the moon. Bear in mind that international mail service is “all fucked up” right now because of COVID so it may take a month or more to get your loot if you are outside the US. It may take a month or more if you are inside the US, too.

How To Pay:

You can donate directly to FTB’s [paypal] which is my preference, or to the collective GoFundMe which divides the money between FTB, Skepticon, and other defendants in the lawsuit.

AUCTION CLOSES AT Oct 4 at 10:00AM EST

My comment settings require manual approval for the first comment from a person. If you comment and don’t see it, I’ll get it, fear not. If you email me and do not get an acknowledgement, and you are gmail user, check your spam box. Google’s spam algorithms don’t like me for reasons I have never cared to figure out.