The issue, as I heard it, was this: At the time of the previous auction, the VIP badges offered at that time were represented to offer the bearer/winner the privilege of short-circuiting ANY line to ANY event. You want in, walk right in. Line or no line, overriding any sort of ticketing, etc.
However, during the interval between paying to secure this privilege and the beginning of the previous Sakuracon, Sakuracon changed its terms: now there would be a VIP 'line' rather than the original privilege offered, which was: the bearer gets to CUT the line. NOW.
Evidently, he only found out about the change when he got to Sakuracon, and felt he had gotten ripped off.
So he feels that Sakuracon changed the terms of a valid deal, after the deal was done.
This issue has been taken care of. The badges will be going to good homes. Myself and another con attendant talked after the auction to the people responsible for it all and placed bids that exceeded his former bids. He only ripped up the certificate. The badge itself is to be mailed.
This is unethical, in my opinion. The issue is a NEGATIVE right, such as property rights ('Get off my land,') or patents. I was once on a project where our sales guy was supposed to sell my invention to a customer. The proceeds of the sale would pay my engineering time. But the customer offered him a job at their group where he would attempt to duplicate my invention for a salary collected by him, instead of paying me for my ideas, time, and expertise.
My response was to secure a NEGATIVE RIGHT - so I wrote up 3 patents on my invention, and paid $15K in legal work and fees to the US Patent Office. What did I gain? The NEGATIVE right to prevent him and the customer from building or selling MY machine. It was never built, and I succeeded in cratering the whole project. That's what they got for trying to screw me out of my invention and the patents are MY negative right to say NO - nobody gets to use the improved machinery unless *I* say so.
I feel that if the certificate offered any promises 'to the bearer' the honorable thing (imho) would be to let those privileges lapse. NO ONE gets them. It would be like if a car company offered an auction for Serial No. 1 of a certain car, and the auction WINNER (who happens to dislike the car company) decides to order his Car No. 1 shredded at a metal recycler. People may be aghast at the winner's wish, if but the car company is ethical then they will do what he commands even in sorrow that a unique, prestigious vehicle is destined to be destroyed.
Myself and another con attendant talked after the auction to the people responsible for it all and placed bids that exceeded his former bids.
Okay, I may be sorry but this REALLY sounds sleazy and underhanded. You have an auction, the price is struck, the property (or the opportunity represented) offered is tendered to a winner. Then you have a second, off-line, closed-door deal, to alter the outcome, and transfer those rights to other people? You had better refund of his money, at the VERY least, because if you offer something (that he rightfully secured) to someone ELSE after this guy paid for it (even though he had no intention to use what he bought) - something doesn't add up here. You are
counterfeiting the promises of the original certificate, which
he rightfully won and chose to destroy.
In other words, had he known that Sakuracon would have jiggered the deal behind his back, he should have taken the certificates and stayed home - thus taking those badges and their privileges out of circulation - which was his original intent, at the price he offered to pay to see his will done.
So, shall we all know now that Sakuracon certificates do not convey what they promise, and that what you thought you bought for yourself can be transferred to other people they find more worthy? Or, will Sakuracon
honor its terms, and take those privileges out of circulation, as the rightful winner of the auction intends?
