Brats and Comics

Last night I attended a local comic shop's Halloween Comicfest as my author persona. I expected kids, and wasn't disappointed. For the most part, they were well behaved.

The ranty, stabby part comes during the much beloved auction at the end of the night. There were a few pieces I would've loved to bid on, had I not spent a ton already getting stuff together as a guest author. Anyway, this one family, who it seems is well known to the comic shop owners and most of the patrons, has an obnoxious brat I would guess around 10-12.

Never mind that it's past what I consider bedtime for the little shit, but Brat is allowed by his breeders to bid on items. Okay, fine. Only, when it gets down to just the brat and another adult bidder over an item, guess who wins? Yup, bratly. Every Fucking Time. Some of the stuff was no big deal, but more than once I saw an adult concede defeat to the shit stain so they wouldn't be looked at and called an evil child hater. More than one adult appeared unhappy and disappointed, but no one would outbid the kid, especially if his handlers didn't cut off his bid limit.

This pissed me off for those other patrons who really wanted some of the pieces. If I had the funds, I would have loved to bid on an Avengers Villains and Hero's artwork set. That ended up going to shitly as the adult bidding against him "let" him win it. The friend I was with had a conversation while loading my car at the end of the fun.

He thought that maybe the parents deliberately let their kid bid on some stuff in an effort to "game" others out of collectors items that were really meant for them, so they didn't have to pay a lot. Fuckwads! He said he saw it happen before at other types of auctions, including antiques. It seems the breeders would place their snot factory at the very front of the crowd, and of course in this breederific society, the almighty chiiiiiild can't be allowed to lose.

It stills burns me up. Just because you're a kid, does not mean other's should bow out of trying to get an item they really want, so shitly can have it. Life lessons brat, I wish I could've been the bitch that taught him that. Although, my friend pointed out, as a struggling, barely known author just starting out, it would do more harm than good, PR wise, for my books. Fuck! Fuck the south and the small minded twats that seems to outnumber the more open-minded.

Any other artist types on here that experienced something similar? How do you deal with these situations?

----------------------------------------------
Do not annoy the author, for she may put you in a book and kill you.

I'd base my bids on the top price I was willing to pay for the item, not the person bidding against me. If the kid (or his parents) had deeper pockets, they'd win, but I'd not be swayed from bidding because it was a minor. Did anyone in the crowd express that the bidder should let the kid win? If so, that is bloody ridiculous. I don't know I'd say any item is "meant" for a particular bidder, just for the one who bids highest, regardless of age. And that means nothing is "meant" to go to the children just because they are children, too.

Are auction bids binding? Can minors actually enter into them for non-real estate auctions? If the kid bid above what the parents were willing to pay, would the be bound to cover what he had bid?

No one expressly said it out right, but they made facial and hand gestures that clearly stated they wouldn't bid against the kid after it came down to the two of them.

I'm not sure about the law regarding auctions, but given the type and place, the auctioneer clearly knew the parents of the brat and would look their way to make sure it was okay he could keep bidding. I felt bad for those pandering to the brat, when it was clear they really wanted the item despite the level of the bid.

----------------------------------------------
Do not annoy the author, for she may put you in a book and kill you.

I don't do auctions, but I can rant with you about kyds as an artist starting out. I have done a few art shows now, some of them were at comic cons and elsewhere.

I did a Halloween show recently where I had to show some serious restraint with someone's autistic child who kept grabbing my wooden boxes and rough-handling them. He had an older sister who would pick up items more gently and tried on some of the leather bracelets we make. I don't mind it when children are capable of treating my art well pick things up. But her little brother got jealous and started snatching my wooden boxes and his mom was fighting him to pull it out of his clenching grip. I was certain he was going to break it. I wanted to snatch the box out of his grasp and tell his mom to get out of my tent if she can't wrangle her ape. But unfortunately, you have to show a lot of restraint at these places because customers are unpredictable and you never know when someone will take offense and cause a scene in front of your tent, which then diminishes visitors. Autistic kyds get the chance to destroy more things because there are more serious consequences with them if I were to sternly tell them off the same way I would with a normal child.

Pretty much the only time I feel okay with protecting my stuff is when I'm sure their handlers aren't around. Sometimes at these places they will let the thing run wild without their watch. On one hand, they're more troublesome. On the other, if you're the one who tells them to STFU and get the fuck out of your tent, they're deer in headlights because they've never been told 'no' before and it works very well. There was one of these at a pagan event I was at. He kept playing with our wooden blades until my partner told him, paraphrased, to fuck off. He didn't listen so well, but after a while understood that my business partner meant business. Then later on when it was dark out, he went missing for a while until a kind stranger found him 45ish minutes later very far away from the show and dragged him back.

Interesting dynamic that happens at comic cons... sometimes the kid dragged his parents to the con and sometimes the parents dragged the kid to the con. I generally feel worse for the kid that got dragged with the parents because he's usually doing everything he can to not get lost and his handlers aren't paying a lick of attention to him.

There's definite sexism involved, too. My male business partner can tell kids to fuck off and 'he's just protecting his business.' But if I do it, a female, then I lack maternal understandings and am a bitch.

I attend professional auctions, and they would never allow a minor to register to bid. If a chyld was in the audience and looked like it wasn't old enough to drive, the bidding would be ignored, even if the pahrunt had handed over their bidding number.
There's really no reason to let a kyd bid, as I've even seen adults get confused by the fast pace and some of the auction terminology. But it sounds like this comic auction wasn't much of a professional auction. So perhaps those running it didn't have much experience? Or maybe I'm wrong, did they bring in a professional auctioneer and ring men?
You may have some influence since you participated, I would recommend you get to the organizers of the auction and ask them to require bidders to be 18 and over. Remind them of the legal aspects of dealing with minors, and point out they could have realized more money if chyldrun weren't involved in the bidding.
10-12 is too young to be there unsupervised, so how could it possibly inconvenience it's handlers if they had to do the bidding?

Hi Moot,

This was definitely not a professional auction, as the store owner was the auctioneer. They were basically selling off items they had bought from people looking to sell their collectibles that where perhaps just languishing in the store, if that makes sense. They also had promo items like posters, banners, etc. used to advertise products. Kinda like a clean out the storage area so more stuff can be brought in. I don't know if the laws would apply in that case.

I'm thinking with breeders, they were too lazy or too cheap to enter the bidding against others. The kid must have bid on and won a good dozen different items.

Thanks for the heads up about kyds and handlers. There is an all ages (urgh) all types of media event I'll be at in November, which is drawing in artists from out of state. An artist made an OOAK doll for me based on one of my book's characters which I'll be displaying. It cost a decent amount. What I don't understand is how the sponsors can have a famblee friendly event like that knowing the kinds of costumes some con-goers wear. It's sad, as it states on their site costumes must be "appropriate" and not too "racy or revealing" because of the children, ya know.

Hi BitchyAuthor,

Yeah, I got the impression it was kind of an unprofessional setup. All of this really depends on the state. I'm in Indiana, and I can see that "no person may act as an auctioneer without a license." There are exceptions, but not to someone that is auctioning off goods they acquired for resale. So really, the whole setup would've been illegal here, if the store owner's not licensed. I doubt that he would be.
I don't know what state you are in, but it's usually a good practice to not enter into contracts with minors. They don't have "capacity." If a twelve year old somehow got their bid accepted at an auction here and decided to not make good on it, then there wouldn't be much for the auctioneer to do about it. Haul it into court, and it would be thrown out since the kyd wasn't legally able to enter into a contract. If the kyd did pay for it, the pahrunt could always come back and throw a fit over them "ripping off a minor."
I can't imagine a big stink being made out of a guy having a one-time auction (despite breaking every rule in the book), what is anyone going to do about it? Tell him he can't do it again? He probably wasn't anyhow.
How did bidder registration work? Did people sign in and get numbers? If the guy plans on future auctions, I'd complain to him and see if he wouldn't make it a prerequisite that registration is open only to adults...and bids will only be accepted from the person that registered.

Quote
moot
Hi BitchyAuthor,

Yeah, I got the impression it was kind of an unprofessional setup. All of this really depends on the state. I'm in Indiana, and I can see that "no person may act as an auctioneer without a license." There are exceptions, but not to someone that is auctioning off goods they acquired for resale. So really, the whole setup would've been illegal here, if the store owner's not licensed. I doubt that he would be.
I don't know what state you are in, but it's usually a good practice to not enter into contracts with minors. They don't have "capacity." If a twelve year old somehow got their bid accepted at an auction here and decided to not make good on it, then there wouldn't be much for the auctioneer to do about it. Haul it into court, and it would be thrown out since the kyd wasn't legally able to enter into a contract. If the kyd did pay for it, the pahrunt could always come back and throw a fit over them "ripping off a minor."
I can't imagine a big stink being made out of a guy having a one-time auction (despite breaking every rule in the book), what is anyone going to do about it? Tell him he can't do it again? He probably wasn't anyhow.
How did bidder registration work? Did people sign in and get numbers? If the guy plans on future auctions, I'd complain to him and see if he wouldn't make it a prerequisite that registration is open only to adults...and bids will only be accepted from the person that registered.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Video-Games-and-Consoles/Having-to-relist-games-because-buyer-claims-kids-bid-on-it/td-p/2671010


http://www.nyccounsel.com/business-contracts/are-parents-responsible-for-their-kids-bid-on-ebay/

http://www.slashgear.com/7-year-old-boy-wins-ebay-auction-for-harrier-jet-dad-not-happy-10132489/

http://www.kptv.com/story/22799567/baby-bidder-toddler-buys-car-on-ebay-with-dads-phone

_______________________________________________
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

Quote
thom_c
http://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Video-Games-and-Consoles/Having-to-relist-games-because-buyer-claims-kids-bid-on-it/td-p/2671010


http://www.nyccounsel.com/business-contracts/are-parents-responsible-for-their-kids-bid-on-ebay/

http://www.slashgear.com/7-year-old-boy-wins-ebay-auction-for-harrier-jet-dad-not-happy-10132489/

http://www.kptv.com/story/22799567/baby-bidder-toddler-buys-car-on-ebay-with-dads-phone

Yep. It's one thing if the kid sets up an account, and does all this without the pahrunts knowledge. But if the kyd gets on the parents account and bids/buys, that's negligent parenting. If you joined a porn pay site or visited porn and left it in your history and let your kid use the computer without logging out or deleting the history, I say you would basically be handing the chyld porn. Would you leave your online banking available for your 8 y/o to access? A loaded gun sitting on the desk? It's your eBay account. You protect it. If you don't take reasonable precautions, you're liable. At least that's how I would decide if I were on a jury regarding the matter.

I sell from time to time on Craigslist or a fakebook group, and there is nothing worse than finding out you have been dealing with a dimwitted teen or pre-teen that wants to act like an adult. They have no transportation, I certainly don't want to meet a minor from the internet, and even if it did work out, I don't need the duhd or moo coming back on me because I "ripped" the kyd off or they didn't want them to have whatever it was I was selling.

Same thing when breeders let their kids play games on their smartphones and racked up hundreds on in-app purchases because a lot of those games pretty much require spending money if you have a chance in advancing. Then the breeders demanded that Apple refund them because it was the kid, not them. Apple should have been like, "Well, that's your damn stupidity in letting your kids have access to that. Let this be a lesson learned," and not caved like they did.

------------------------------------------------------------
"Why children take so long to grow? They eat and drink like pig and give nothing back. Must find way to accelerate process..."
- Dr. Yi Suchong, Bioshock

"Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born."
- Garrett Hardin

"I feel like there's a message involved here somehow, but then I couldn't stop laughing at all the plotholes, like the part when North Korea has food."
- Youtube commentor referring to a North Korean cartoon.

"Reality is a bitch when it slowly crawls out of your vagina and shits in your lap."
- Reddit comment

"Bitch wants a baby, so we're gonna fuck now. #bareback"
- Cambion

Oh whatever. Abortion doctors are crimestoppers."
- Miss Hannigan

Thanks for the links, thom c, they made for interesting reading.

There wasn't any registering or pre-registering at all for this. It was pretty much, "ok, we're going to start the auction in 5 minutes so those who want to participate sit/stand here. The rest of you, go over there."

Next time one of these events takes place there, I'll make sure to reserve some funds encase something comes up I want to bid on, and fuck the little snotminer.

I don't know why the parents bother buying their kids nice things when the bastards will just take the stuff home, ruin it, and lose interest in it after 30 seconds... compared to an adult that will take care of the items and cherish them. I sure as fuck wouldn't let someone's crotch-muffin outbid me on an item I really want. Fuck 'em, I don't care if they're kids. They can learn the agony of defeat too. If that makes me a meanie-head, then fine. I'll give Moo and Duh a run for their money.

Yay for another artist too! I was also doing art at a local ComicFest event recently. My art folder that I put on display has some racy stuff in it, and I'm amazed I haven't had a sensitive breeder heifer bitch at me about "what if a child sees this?"

It's too bad the store owners can't put a rule in place about bidders being a certain age. How easy could it be for someone's little monster to fall in love with a Captain America poster and jack bids up to $75, but then the parents refuse to pay it? It'd get real old having to re-do bidding or cancel it. Maybe it'd be worth mentioning to whoever is in charge that a win limit could be a good thing, like if you win 2 auctions, you don't get to bid on any more so other people have a chance to win stuff. I know I'd be fuckin' pissed if someone's little snotminer went home with all auctioned items. It's not very fun to hav an auction when one person walks away with all the loot, regardless of age.