What Charity?

[beastofrock]

Hi,
As i posted yesterday i started working in my local cinema yesterday and we recieve plenty of movie posters and also the huge stands, (we currently have a terminator salvation, transformers 2 and monsters vs alien) which are about 10ft tall

i run have run it past my manager that when we are finished with them that i sell them on here and all profit goes to charity.

so basically as i will be selling them on here what charities do people think we should be donating to? It can be more than one of course

[PoochJD]

Hi,

I admire you for getting a manager to auction off the Cardboard Standees on here. My only concern will be, how will you get the standees, to the person in question?! Some of them are gigantic once built, and will not be easily sent through the postal system. And, many people won't be able to pick-them up from your establishment, so....?

Can I also recommend that all posters be auctioned off, at reasonable prices, say between £2.50 and £10, depending on the size of course? I'm sure your cinema staff will already have cherry-picked all the best ones (that happens in almost every cinema), but if you could get the management to keep at least one of every poster for auctioning off, then I'm sure many AVForums members (myself included) would be eager to buy them from you.

As for which charities, I think any or all of the following would probably be universally approved by everyone on the Forums, as being good choices, for one reason or another (in no order of preference):

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Macmillan Cancer

Breast Cancer Research

Marie Curie

Breakthrough Breast Cancer

Cancer Research UK

NSPCC

RSPCA

Childline

Guide Dogs For The Blind

Your local hospice/hospital ward

Any local kids charities

Any local schools


Pooch

[Sniper Ash6]

I agree with the feasibility of sending then, there is also the issue of where are they going to be stored while the sale is pending etc?

Agree with Pooch's list of charities though

[jp_bl_68]

Why not donate the money to a filmmakers/arts charity?

[majnu]

PoochJD mentioned some great charity's, but also he is right mentioning about the feasibility of it. Just have an auction day or a general sale at the cinema where local residents can buy the stands, posters etc.

[beastofrock]

that is tempting for the local auction and it is something were thinking about but i would rather offer it to people on here who are real film nuts

as regard to storage that will be at the cinema until sold and one of each poster will be kept back

also as for postage of the stands they would be sold cheaper for people to pay delivery

[PoochJD]

Hi,

Thanks for the kind comments people!

The problem, however well-intentioned this idea is, is that delivery of any reasonably large standee, is going to be getting it from your cinema, having it packaged-up for delivery, and then collected from the cinema and delivered to the auction winner. Even if, on the off-chance, the standees can be safely broken down, and sent through the post flat, it's still going to be pricey and a pain in the bum to do it.

Unfortunately, the sad fact is, that the standees will - more than likely - have to remain fully-built, and just aren't going to be transportable in anything other than fairly large utility vehicles (transit vans, etc), because of their size and fragility. And, I can safely say that hiring a van to transport a standee is not going to be feasable to most of us on the forums - both in terms of actual financial cost, and in terms of actually bothering to get it all sorted out.

I can't see anyone willing to spend, say £50 on a standee, but then having to incur upwards of 2-3 times that figure to get it to their place of residence/business.

However, the posters are definitely going to be much easier to send, as are things like the numerous large-scale posters, wallcharts and banners that cinemas get sent. So definitely put them up for auction on here!

If/when this comes to fruition, may I also add one minor proviso, please? In order to be as fair as possible to everyone, and to make sure that everyone has a fair chance of winning at least one poster, there should be a small restriction on the number of bids you can put in at any one time, e.g. no more than say 3 bids on three seperate items, at any one time. Otherwise, people on lower incomes, may never actually get a realistic chance to win an auction, if they're constantly being outbid by people who spend 24/7 on their PC's, and have large amounts of surplus cash to spend.

What do the rest of you think?


Pooch

[Ivor the Engine]

As someone who works for a charity can I recommend the one I work for.

Sense campaigns for and supports deafblind people and children.

I have thought for a long time that a forum that revolves around audio and visual would have tremendous correlations with people who are denied access to the world via these two senses.

However, I guess it remains the OP's choice.