I was watching the stream last night and I was blown away...amazing game that I can't wait to play! If I were a Rush super fan, I'd personally not feel very good about having to drop a huge premium to a flipper to get my dream pin. I'm hoping this is a chance to turn that negative energy re: flipping to the good, and do some real meaningful good at the same time.

I did check with them on this, just to save double shipping costs and get more to charity. They need to ship to me for the sale tax thing (alas, it is purchased and fully paid for, so less flexibility I think)

Appreciate kicking in something for the foundation Vino ! More voices that pull together here, the more we push back on the black cloud that Steve_d71 mentioned.

Good morning, and thank you for the amazing response! Love this community

We're currently at $13,500, and a very generous anonymous pledge of $100 to the Glioblastoma Foundation to sweeten the deal. I'll update the ad with the latest/greatest

Have a bunch of discussions going that hopefully let us sweeten the pot on this one. Once games start shipping, I'm hopeful interest will really pop (I'll for sure post shipping updates here for those that are tracking).

Quick update here. No change in top bid ($13.5k), but some absolutely amazing news.

The amazing folks at Hemispheres Amusements (@Hemispheres) have step up and will match the donation to the Glioblastoma Foundation. Every dollar we're over what I paid MSRP will now be matched two for one....$3000 premium will be tripled, with $9000 (plus a $100 pledge from a fellow insider) going to the the Glioblastoma Foundation in honor of Neil.

Thank you to Hemispheres for the absolutely amazing generosity, and an extra special thank you knowing that it is coming from the heart.

I will update as new information comes in, and have much more frequent updates when the pin ships from the factory.

and another $100 pledge from a fellow pinsider. Thank you to everyone for the support!

Many many thanks to Vino for a $100 donation in honor of Neil ... thank you brother, it means a lot

An amazingly generous Pinsider has stepped up with a $21,120 bid...absolutely incredible, and again, from the heart. Thank you!

Many thanks to SerenityNow for pledging a $200 donation to the Glioblastoma Foundation as part of this effort. Very proud to stand with you John

With LE's on the line and presumably shipping soon, the pace of updates will hopefully be picking up soon. Thank you everyone for the amazing outpouring of support for this effort (our collected donation is well north of $20k right now and growing, which is AMAZING), and hopefully we'll be able to get even more support from the community as we get closer to delivery and closing the auction out.

Very excited to see pictures of LE's being delivered to people's homes! I haven't gotten a shipping notice yet, but hopefully soon, and we'll be able to put the final hammer down on this auction.

I just got off the phone with Kurt Hemispheres and he is raising his matching contribution cap to $8000. In support of the amazing generosity of Kurt and all those that are stepping up for this auction, I am raising my matching contribution cap to $8000 as well.

If the current $21,120 winning bid stands, our collective contribution to the Glioblastoma Foundation is going to be:

$8,837.57 ------- (Current top bid of $21,120 - $12,282.43 I paid for the LE)
$8,000 ---------- Matching contribution from me
$8,000 ---------- Matching contribution from the incredible team at Hemispheres
$500 ------------ Pledges from SerenityNow Vino and two anonymous pinsiders
$priceless ------ Support from robin and the Pinside team for the auction and front page sticky promotion
-------

$25,337.57 (!!!!!!)

That's an incredible $25k + from us pinsiders to the Glioblastoma Foundation in honor of Neil Peart.

Things will pick up as my LE ships from the factory, but I want to acknowledge the remarkable support and generosity of the community for this effort. I know the cause is very personal to many, and it is incredible to see the amazing support this community is putting out there in memory of Neil, and in support of all those who are (or will be) fighting the same fight that Neil did.

If you would like to participate in any way, please drop a note here, or drop a note to PM with any bids or pledges or other pieces of support you'd like to contribute to this auction. When people come together to stand for good, it raises all of us.

Thank you again to everyone for your support!

Many thanks to Pinsider Oiler2112 for stepping up HUGE with a pledge of $2112 as an auction sweetener (how sweet it is!). We are now over $27k pledged on behalf of our community to the Glioblastoma Foundation, which is a staggering total.

My Rush LE has not shipped from Stern yet, so still time to get involved. I will post here when it is enroute and we have a proper auction count down.

In the meantime, I will see if I can get a fund raising group established with the Glioblastoma Foundation so that all donations can be made directly, and we can all see the total as it builds up. Hopefully I can get that going this week...

Thank you again to Oiler2112 for the incredible donation!

Another update for those following and supporting this auction.

I have not yet received a shipping notice from Stern, but hopefully soon. I will post here as soon as I have an ETA for when the pin will arrive, and the auction will end.

After consulting with the major supporters and top bidder, I have made an important change to the auction. I have changed the charity to receive the funds from the Glioblastoma Foundation to the Cancer Research Institute.

The reason for this is that after doing some research, the Glioblastoma Foundation is actually a very small charity (~$400k per year in funds raised) with only ~25% of raised monies going to support research programs. The Cancer Research Institute is a major charity funding immunotherapies for many cancer types (including brain cancers like Glioblastoma), with almost 90% of monies raised going to fund research programs. In consulting with the top bidder and the major donors, we all agreed that we would like as much of the monies raised in this auction to go to charity as possible. I have made the changes to the ad listing.

One side benefit of the change is that the Cancer Research Institute has a really nice website for creating fund raising pages. I have created one for this auction:

https://fundraise.cancerresearch.org/FlipForGoodRushLE

I have also made my $8000 matching donation to help get the ball rolling, while we are waiting on my Rush LE to ship so we can put a proper close to this auction. I will make a second donation for the net proceeds from the sale of this pin after the auction closes.

If you would like to support this effort, please feel free to make any donations you're comfortable with at the above sight. We are within spitting distance of raising $30,000 to help find a cure for this and other cancers, which is humbling and awe inspiring. Thank you for everyone that has stepped up to help make this type of statement on behalf of our community. This really is way beyond anything I could have hoped for, but hopefully we can raise the bar higher still.

Thank you Oiler2112 for your $2112 donation this morning! Incredible generosity, and from the heart (his donation comment copy/pasted below)

"Rush and Neil in particular have always been an inspiration to me. They brought so much joy to my life and also made me think about many subjects. Besides being arguably the best drummer of all time, Neils lyrics are always thought provoking. They are all just very down to earth good canadian boys, who just happened to come together to form the best band ever, in my humble opinion. I hope this donation can help to conquer this disease that took down my hero, Mr Neil Peart (The Professor)."

Mr. George Sinchuk, if you're here on Pinside and reading this, thank you brother for your $300 donation, and supporting this effort!

I got shipping notice from Stern today! Currently scheduled to be delivered to San Diego (and officially end this auction) Friday this week(!)

I will be posting more frequent updates right up until close. Thank you again everyone for the incredible community support for this effort!

The pin may be a little hung over when it arrives tomorrow....I'll have the Advil ready to go

pasted_image (resized).png

Apparently the hangover was worse than expected. Just got a call from FedEx, and delivery is scheduled for Monday afternoon. I'll post updates here as I have a better delivery time (reminder: auction formally ends when the pin is sitting on the floor in my garage Monday afternoon)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Today's the day! The charity pin is out for delivery.

Reminder that auction closes when the pin sits down on my garage floor. I will post a pic with timestamp to officially close things out.

For anyone interested in supporting the effort, please consider donating what you're comfortable with at our fund raising page:

https://fundraise.cancerresearch.org/fundraiser/3775282

We're getting to material numbers on that page, with another $16k or so already committed.

Thank you again everyone for your support and encouragement in this multi-month process, and excited to close things out later today!

pasted_image (resized).png

10 minute warning for any auction snipers out there...

And that’s a wrap! The winning bid is an amazing $21120!

I will do final tallies this afternoon, but thank you everyone for an amazingly successful fundraiser

425420BD-D9B8-4980-ACAD-B5B6F773EFA7 (resized).jpeg

To close out my piece of this auction, the final proceeds from the auction itself was $21,120 (winning bid) - $12,282.43 (what I paid) = $8,837.57

I'm delighted to say that I've completed this donation to the fundraiser page at the Cancer Research Institute https://fundraise.cancerresearch.org/fundraiser/3775282

I will leave the fundraiser page open for a couple more weeks for others that would like to support the effort, and for others that made a pledge that would prefer to make donations through the fund raising sight.

MANY thanks again to everyone for making this an incredible success. When all is said and done and the remaining donations get made, the community will have raised more than $27,000 (!!!) to support cancer research in honor of Neil Peart. That is the real deal, and will help make a real difference.

Thank you again!

pasted_image (resized).png