the Trevor treasure chest...tonight!

Many of you may know Trevor, but I have asked him to write up a little story to introduce himself to the rest of you.

Hey everybody,

My name is Trevor. Some of you might know me from the neilgaiman.com
forums, the alt.fan.thingy, or even way back in the day from The Well
and other sorts of online things. Some of you might even have met me
in person anywhere from Boskone and ConCat, all the way to World
Fantasy Con, SDCC, Fiddler's Green, or the House on The Rock.
Regardless, I'm kind of a big Neil fan, and I am lucky to count him as
a pretty close friend.

I first met Neil at Comic Con I-don't-remember-how-long-ago...
whenever Rantz Hoseley gave him Tori's demo tape... 93?

Anyways... years pass, and Neil slowly becomes more and more famous.
He has more and more signings here on the West Coast that I go to, and
we get to chatting here and there. One day, we exchange email
addresses, and it grows from there.

I ran one of the "Big Five" Neil Websites back in the day... there was
Puck's "The Dreaming", Dylan's "The Wake"... mine was never on par
with those, but I tried to keep it updated all the time, so I started
posting tour dates, pictures, videos, anything I could to sate the
growing number of clicks and visits. Then one day I got an email, and
this moment forever changed the dynamic between Neil and I.

The email was from a Very Excited Fan in Japan, and went along the lines of:

"Hey! I LIKE your SITE!!! Did you know that NEILGAIMAN.COM is
available!?!1!!eleven!! I want to buy it and create the NEIL GAIMAN
SUPER SITE!!! What do you think? Good idea?"

After clicking through a few hosting websites, confirming that it was
available, and then purchasing the domain myself, my reply was a
cordial "Oh, it looks like someone grabbed it. That was a neat idea.
Thanks for letting me know!"

Immediately, the response was:

"ZOMG! It *IS* gone! OH! But [...insert numerous permutations of
Neil's name and .nets/.orgs/etc here...] is All STILL AVAILABLE!!"

After purchasing the next series of domains, I quickly tossed off an
email to Neil saying something along the lines of:

Very Excited Fan in Japan notified me he was going to buy neilgaiman.com
I bought that and [insert all others here] to prevent.
Weird. I own your name.
--- Trev

So, a while later (year?) Neil and I were in Hollywood, Florida and
sitting at the hotel bar with Then-Director of the CBLDF Chris Oarr.
Neil, sitting to my right, does this slow... dramatic turn to his left
(swiveling on the swivel barstool) and looks at me from over his
sunglasses and says:

"Trevor. One day, I will come for my website. And you will give it to me."

And then slowly he turned back, to enjoy his tea.

And one day, I did. For no money (rumors abound that I was paid large
amounts of cash), just a simple email address or two... the domain was
transferred to Neil, and the rest is history.

So why the hell am I droning on and on about who I am?

Because I need your help.

I've hit that dreadful spot that comes and goes in people's lives in
which I have to part with some of my stuff in order to survive. By no
means, this isn't a auction in which I'm offloading some extra stuff,
or to buy a new computer, or anything like that. This is survival, and
I wouldn't be asking for Neil and Kitty and your help if it wasn't for
that.

Neil always told me when he was signing something weird/cool for me,
to "...only sell this if you need to pay rent or are in dire
straits..."

Well, I am. Sparing the details, I have mounting medical bills. My
living situation is in dire need of changing. I need to move closer to
work, closer to the doctor, and closer to sanity.

In order to do that, I have to sell some things.

Please be generous. Some of these items are very rare, and very
collectible. Others are off the wall and random. Some of them are as
unique as Neil himself.

Enjoy them. They brought me years of happiness, and will allow me to
reset my life... but promise me one thing:

Only sell them again if you need to pay rent or are in dire straits.

Thank you, and may you always find a story to tell...

This auction is to primarily reset my life, get healthy, and get my feet back under me... But I'm not selfish.
If the assembled masses are generous enough to the point where this raises more then I realistically need, anything over will be split evenly between the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and The American Cancer Society.

--- TSV

ok, me again.
I have spent the last few days, posting several treasures over on Ebay,
my seller name is: Kitty9thlife
and they are set to go live in the next few hours, some tomorrow and some Thursday.
Get out and bid, and go make some magic for yourself.
You'll be helping Trevor, and helping yourself.

here are a few previews of the items being auctioned
(Trevor is moving house so his photos are not exactly Ansel Adams quality, but like I said in the ebay posts, we can send better shots!):