I've been away from my computer for a few days and even though I'm too late for the contest I decided to donate anyway, I've been meaning to for a while but this donation drive really convinced me to go ahead and do it. I think its great how everyone stepped up to help Nathan out. I'm glad that I had the cash on hand to donate, I really love this site and want it to stay alive!

-James

The 2nd and 3rd prizes are fantastic! Auction catalogs are a great way to expand one's photographic archive of arms and armor, and the Peter Finer catalogs are unrivaled, IMO. All prizes are worth a shot! Get your $10 or more donated today!

Thanks, Nathan!

Jonathan

Well one last contribution from me just to round things out to a nice ROUND number and another " BUMP ".

Oh, and the other prizes look very nice. :D

Haha, I must have read the date wrong, I'm glad I'm in. Either way though, I'm glad I donated, its important that we all help out!

myArmoury's in trouble?! No fear, I'll save y-- oh, wait, I'm too late to help.

Well, a little more money won't hurt. :D

$3000 doesn't seem like too distant a goal.

Less than $100 away from the $3K mark now.

So does the list lag a bit with the updates?

Even without knowing what I'm asking, you've managed to answer the question.

From my perspective, the list lags a bit because for me payment initiation is "visual" the trigger event, not processing.

:cool:

Right...was just viewing the whole thing backwards.

Wow People, the $3,000 mark just got crossed. I think that's a good reason to add another prize to this contest.

Now FOUR people will be picked and FOUR prizes given away.

Keep the donations coming. All donations and memberships that come in before the contest close on Monday Sep 3, 2007are automatically entered to win. See the original post in this topic for details.

Special thanks to Bill Grandy for donating the fourth prize: a CAS Iberia / Hanwei Stiletto!


FIRST PRIZE:

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The Arms & Armor Dürer Bastard Sword includes a black-leather scabbard and is valued, new, at more than $700 US for the package.


SECOND PRIZE:

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A set of Sotheby's catalogs of antique arms, armour & militaria. These catalogs have some absolutely fantastic items contained in them with great photographs. Asking prices for such catalogs are around $20-$30 apiece, making the this prize's value as much as $150.

You get five catalogs: December 15, 2004, December 4, 2003, December 5, 2002, June 26, 2003, and June 30, 2004


THIRD PRIZE:

A very good to fine copy of the 2001 Peter Finer Catalog and a very used copy of Arms and Armour by Frederick Wilkinson.

The Peter finer catalog is a hardcover edition and includes its dust cover. It's in great shape. These are getting hard to find. Several beautiful items are featured within and include stunning photographs and wonderful write-ups by renown authors. The Wilkinson book is worn and has a different cover than the one shown. It is, however, a title worth owning in any condition. This prize is worth around $75.

[ Linked Image ] [ Linked Image ]


FOURTH PRIZE:

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This CAS Iberia / Hanwei Stiletto was donated by Bill Grandy. Though once in his own collection, it is in great condition. A new version of this prize has a suggested retail price of $139.

Maker's description: "The Stiletto replicates a late 17th century piece from a private collection. Designed exclusively as a thrusting weapon, the stiletto was widespread in the period when upper-class civilian dress often incorporated mail or leather body armour. The triangular section 10.5" blade is complemented by a buffalo horn grip, with the pommel and guard finials in the form of spirally carved pine cones. A silver-mounted leather-covered sheath is provided."


The order of the prizes does not necessarily indicate their value. Rather, they're just the order that the winners will be randomly drawn.

This seems to be working pretty well. Nathan, are we bringing in enough this year to fund prizes for next year's raffle (assuming there is one)? Seems a shame for you to keep giving up your own collection.

Doing a quick calculation, I've calculated that my hourly wage for the work I've put into this site is a bit less than $0.07 US (7-cents) an hour. This absolutely non-scientific and completely inaccurate estimate accounts for the amount of time I've put into the site, the amount of money that the site has "earned", the actual cost incurred by myself, etc. The last few posts that started, even if only a little bit, to speculate on the "future" of the site with suggestions on how I should use the money got me thinking about it. I don't do this for the money, of course, and am not regretful about any of it. It's been as good a hobby as any, I suppose.

So, to be clear, and to avoid others speculating and offering more suggestions on the matter, I'm using any income this site earns to pay for the yearly hosting, keep some for the bandwidth overage charges that pop up, hopefully buy my own server so we're not on a shared hosting environment, get a couple prizes maybe for future contests, buy a book or two, and whatever is left will be spent by myself, on myself. Why this last part? Because after thousands of hours put into this project over 5 years and giving up some really neat collectibles, I deserve to go to dinner on you guys. :p

(All the other team members and authors and the work they've put into this doesn't even factor into this calculation. Imagined the combined work that went into this thing? Ugh...)


Even if I buy the server, I'd need spend about 20-35 hours to set it up, migrate the data, get it working, and then work out a new hosting deal to get everything back to where it was. Oh yeah, then deal with all the kinks that arise afterwards. I'm not sure when I'd be able to find that kind of time, but whatever.. nothing for you all to worry about.

Thanks to all you guys.

I've been watching this and had to say that I think it is really cool to see the members step up, not to mention Nathan's generous prize offering. I have watched you let go of some nice swords in the interest of the site, Nathan, and feel a twinge of loss for your sake every time. I haven't been able to contribute as much as I would like as yet but have been kicking around the idea of making a dagger and donating it to the site. It could be used as a prize for the next contribution drive, but I was thinking that Nathan deserves something to put back in his personal collection to fill in where the site upkeep has made a dent. Your thoughts would be much appreciated, Nathan.

A few more donations came in and we're now over $1000 past the goal for this fund raising campaign! I am glad that we did not rest on our laurels and have continued to give. Congratulations and thanks to the myArmoury community!

Jonathan