[citation][nom]kuharski[/nom]Maybe you guys should ask the children that are getting this money what they think?[/citation]
Yes, they will be getting the money. Yes that's great. But what exactly is Blizzard doing that is deserving of such praise?
They are taking equipment that due to amortization has to be essentially worthless to Blizzard. These aren't their current server blades. These are the ones that were used before they did their equipment upgrades over the course of several months about a year or so ago. They won't sell them as used equipment. Anyone that has a clue about companies like this know they are very protective of intellectual property. It's like how companies will make sure certain parts of a copy machine or PC is destroyed. They will make sure these are very much non functional before they walk out the door.
So instead of recycling them, they are selling them off. Now nothing wrong with that. And the fact that they are given the money they will get from buyers is a good thing and I applaud them. but make no mistake, this is NOT Blizzard donating to charity. This is the buyers of the server blades whose money will go the charity. Blizzard get's the benefit of taking worthless equipment and writing it off as a donation. And even their own thing talks about the amount taken from the purchase price. $50 for packaging, shipping, handling and insurance. Companies like this ship and buy packaging materials in such bulk, it's extremely hard to believe it will cost $50 per unit for that. Then there's the Paypal fee, which hopefully won't be inflated, and then "approximately" 1% for the eBay listing. I wonder exactly what eBay will charge them for the listing.
So they get the tax write-off, they seem to be able to make a little bit of money from the associated fees and then have no other cost to them. The money going to St. Jude will be from the PURCHASERS, ie the customer, NOT the seller, Blizzard.
And yes, I do seriously question the timing. For weeks people on WoW's forums clamored for a Japan Relief Pet. Only after the disappointing 1st quarter conference call did they release one. They didn't even make a new pet. They slightly recolored an existing pet and sold it with the proceeds going to the relief effort. Yet go to Joystiq and MMO Champs and read comments in the stories about that as well as their Make-A-Wish pets where they gave 50% of proceeds made from the pets to that organization. People gush about how generous Blizzard is to give so much money. The problem is Blizzard did NOT give that money. That money is what the customers gave for the pets. Blizzard was out nothing. Had I not bought one, that would have been $5 less for Make A Wish.
Now I am very sure that Morhaime, Metzen, Pardo, Tigole, GC, Samwise, all of them, are very generous and have given personally and as a business, to worthy charities. But make no mistake, this isn't them giving, this is the customer giving. And how sad is it that people don't recognize that and don't give of themselves until something comes along. And buyers of this won't be eligible for a possible tax deduction.
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