Welcome to the new Silent Auctions! Unlike most things that are silent, you should tell EVERYONE!!!

First up is the Kingdom Hearts Stained Glass Clock!

Donated by Ggyppt & Fantastic Fandoms. Current high bid is $713

Next up is a Desert Bus classic… A pepe! This year, it is a Gelatinous Pepe

Donated by BuildTheBird. Current high bid is $666

Both auctions close at 10am PST, so get your bids in now!!!!!!

Have you ever wanted a garment that was some sort of identity crisis between a scarf a shawl and a small blanket? Do you enjoy demonstrating infinite loops within an infinite loop? Do you like to touch soft, luxurious objects and rub them on your face? If one or more of these things are true, then this is the item for you! Hand knit from Premier Retro Velvet yarn in warm and friendly Mink grey, this scarf contains a laboriously patterned design of mana tap arrows feeding endlessly into each other with edge details of the five colored mana symbols.

This Infinite Mana Scarf has been donated by our very own DasBoomer!!!

This giveaway is open until 3:30am. You can enter with donations of $8.05, or multiple positive integers thereof. You must have a donor account in order to enter! You can donate right here! Best of luck!!!!!

The USS Tucson, crewed by the Night Watch of Desert Bus, has attacked the brave Starship Zeta Shift. All The Starship Zeta Shift wanted was to sort out diplomatic relations and trade agreements. But no. The USS Tucson had no interest. So they fired upon us. And it is your job to show what that looked like. It could be the moment of impact upon the ship, what happened on the bridge, or what happened in the aftermath. It’s up to you. All we request is that you submit your interpretation in the form of a gif, a .jpg, or a .png to the email address [email protected], with the subject line “Starship Zeta Attack“.

You have until 5am PST to submit your entry! And if you win… Well, you get not only a Desert Bus Gold DBloon, but also a Desert Bus 2021 shirt!!!

Thank you to our friends at Fangamer for this awesome shirt!

Night Watch Log, Bus Date 1512.6. The fifteenth voyage of USS Tucson has gotten underway. An officer made a wager that the Chat Continuum could not exceed the pre-run record of $27,805 donated before the trip began. The officer of course lost this wager, as most do when they challenge the Chat.

Our crew proceeded to introduce the giveaway of a Zelda Master Sword, which raised <URGH!> a total of $22,155.21 for the children. Grand Nagus Zek presented our silent auctions <URGH!> despite his objections to this notion of “charity.”

Overall it has been a smooth first leg of our long <URGH!> journey, despite PayPal issues that have temporarily paused our second giveaway. Despite this, the crew remains optimistic about <URGH!> okay what is happening with these sounds.

—Log Interrupted—

Night Watch Log, supplemental. Ensign Ben from Engineering left a tricorder open and playing <URGH!> random Mario 64 thwomp sounds. This is our life now. <URGHHHHH!> And we kinda like it, actually. <URGH! URGH!>

You wouldn’t expect to find a stream in the desert, but here we are, and here you go: a chance to stream with the very same equipment kindly provided to Desert Bus by Elgato!

This Custom Printed Elgato Stream Deck features a Desert Bus logo and 15 LCD buttons that you can customize to swap scenes, trigger alerts, or any other control to help you stream.

Donate $5.15 or multiples thereof before 9:50PM PST for a chance to win this prize!

Update (9:38PM PST): A PayPal error is preventing updates to our donation tracker. The backend is still tracking each donation correctly so if you have already entered or are planning to enter this giveaway, your entry will be tracked!

Update (12:15AM PST): We’re starting to get PayPal again! The entry period for this giveaway has been extended till 12:30am PST. Take it away, Zeta Shift!

Hello. Welcome to the Silent Auction Library, which has been proudly serving the Desert Bus community for fifteen years. We understand if you’re excited by our cool auction items, but please keep your voice down. This is an exclamation mark free zone.

Desert Bus Shift Themed Battletech Lance

These hand-painted miniatures let you imagine: what if Desert Bus, but with giant mechs and weapons? Each of these four Legendary Mechwarrior models sports the colors of a Desert Bus shift. The set even comes with a unique miniature of the Bus that can swap between mechs. The tiny bus made us so happy we almost used an exclamation point, but no: silent (or at least very quiet) auction.

Studio Ghibli Scarf

Ever wished you could wrap yourself up in Studio Ghibli movies like a nice, warm hug? You can now thanks to this reversible, hand-knit scarf featuring some of your favorite characters. Totoro, Princess Mononoke, soot sprites… and yes, the Catbus. We think the Catbus is a particularly nice touch. We like buses here.

Both of these wonderful prizes will be available for bidding until 2AM PST on November 13. You’re welcome to participate, but quietly please. Thank you for visiting our Silent Auction library.

Legendary hero, your sword awaits! Matty Makes crafted this 1:1 scale, 43-inch replica of the Zelda Master Sword out of beautiful Purpleheart & Irish White Oak, complete with a display stand decorated by a hand-engraved triforce, and here we are just giving it away like an old man in a cave. But for donations, of course.

Donate $6.93 or multiples thereof before 8:30PM PST for a chance to raise this legendary sword in triumph!

Look to the horizon: it’s not a mirage, it’s a Desert Bus for Hope!

We’re LIVE and back on the road for our fifteenth (!) year. We’re doing half our shifts in-person and half remote, but near or far, we’re here for the children.

The drive begins with $30,780 already raised so let’s hit the gas and keep going. HONK HONK!

We’re in high gear at the Moonbase and from our respective homes with this year’s run starting very very soon! Beej was rummaging through some boxes in the back and found… oh, maybe some Desert Bus merch you might be interested in?

We’ve also got some important shipping updates we need to share that might impact you, so be sure to read on for the full details. There’s still another three hours until the run starts & the store opens at 6pm Pacific, but first… how about a little merch sneak peek?

Mockup photo.

First, we’ve got the brand-new Desert Bus for Hope 2021 Pinny Arcade Pin. This year’s pin features the Omega Shift Banner. Omega Shift is that weird twilight zone in the last few hours of every run where every shift comes together to celebrate and have some fun. This pin complements last year’s Shift Banner Pin Set, adding the fifth and final shift banner to your collection.

Next, we’ve got the return of the Desert Bus Shift Playmat. This cushy playmat is adorned with the four shifts of the bus: Dawn Guard, Alpha Flight, Night Watch, and Zeta. Bring some Desert Bus flare to your next card battle! Or, speaking from personal experience, it also works well as a really huge mousepad.

Third, we’ve got the Desert Bus for Hope 2021 Poster, drawn by M. Lee Lunsford, creator of the newly released webcomic Nix of Nothing. We don’t really have a picture of what it’ll end up as because, as in previous years, they’ll be drawing the poster live throughout the run, bringing their own interpretation to the year’s shenanigans. Moz will undoubtedly be sharing updates on Twitter through the run, which we’ll share on our Twitter and on the live stream.

On to new loot, like the Desert Bus for Hope 2021 DBLoon. That’s right, for the first time ever the legendary DBLoon is now available to the public! In previous years, the only way to get one of these shinies was by volunteering, joining our Craft Along, or by winning a prize. This year, we have a brand new 2021 coin, generously manufactured by longtime friend of the bus Steve Dengler, and designed by both Dengler himself and Sam G. C. Technically there are three DBloons: Gold coins that will continue to be gifted as thank yous to our prize winners and crafters, Black coins for our hard-working volunteers (yes Mods & VST, for all of you as well 💖) for helping keep the bus on the road, and the brand-new Silver coins which, for the first time, can now be purchased at the Desert Bus Store as a keepsake to show your support of this year’s run.

Mockup photo.

And, last but not least, another new entry this year is the Desert Bus for Hope Water Bottle. This unique Desert Bus design, illustrated by Graham Stark, is printed on a graphite 24oz Contigo Kangaroo water bottle. (Got a Road Quest water bottle? This is that same bottle. I hear it comes highly recommended by seasoned road trippers.) The bottle provides sound advice to anyone appearing on the stage or in an actual vehicle… no unsealed beverages, pleeeease! Take Desert Bus with you on your next hike or drive and stay hydrated in style.

Once the run begins, you can find these items at store.desertbus.org. As in previous years, proceeds from merchandise sales are split between the product’s designer, LoadingReadyRun, and Child’s Play Charity. Yep, that means part of the sales goes towards keeping up playing this super… boring… game… just a bit longer. (Boo-ray! But, really, thank you for your support!)

Alright, previews out of the way, let’s talk about logistics. As you may have heard, international shipping is a bit tricky this year for everyone and it’s affecting us too. We’ve done our best to compile this information all in one place, so here’s what you need to know…

Changes to EU & UK Shipping in 2021

Unfortunately, due to issues collecting and remitting VAT, we cannot ship merch orders to the European Union or United Kingdom at this time. We are really sorry about this, as we know there are quite a few of our viewers who will be affected by this. Currently available solutions are prohibitively expensive and would also take quite some time to set up.

We’re still hopeful to be able to solve this in the future though, and with that in mind we’re holding back a small portion of all 2021 merch items. If and when we can re-enable EU & UK orders, we’ll release these items for sale specifically to folks in those areas. We’ll post an update on our blog and social channels when we have an update regarding this, which we are expecting to be likely well into next year at this point.

It is also worth noting that because this is specifically a sales tax collection issue, our ability to ship prizes to the EU & UK is unaffected. If you are in the EU or UK, you should be able to participate in all our giveaways, silent auctions, and live auctions as you would in any other year.

We know this is far from ideal, and please know that we’ll continue to do our best to help our viewers around the world participate in Desert Bus for Hope.

Order Fulfillment

When you order Desert Bus Merch, you’ll be ordering from the LoadingReadyRun store, operated by PMC Fulfillment. Please keep in mind due to COVID-19 safety protocols, and general shipping bottlenecks worldwide, there will likely be a general delay between when you place your order and when it ships. We thank you for your patience and support!

What about the Photo Book? Or the T-Shirt?

Sorry, but due to the remote nature of 2020’s event, we do not have a photo book this year. You can always relive 2020’s memories on our YouTube channel and find some amazing community-submitted photos over at photos.desertbus.org.

The Official 2021 Desert Bus for Hope T-Shirt is designed, sold, and fulfilled by our pals at Fangamer! Visit shirt.desertbus.org to be redirected over to the Fangamer store and get your super sweet Desert Bus shirt. (Of note, Fangamer is still shipping t-shirts to the EU and UK!)

Oh no, something’s out of stock! Help?

Desert Bus merch supplies are limited run, so if you want to buy something, act quickly! If something’s out of stock, use the “Out of Stock – Notify Me” feature to let us know you’re interested. No guarantees, but if we do bring the item back in stock, we’ll let you know. The more folks that are interested, the more likely we are to be able to do an additional run!

Also, heads up that Desert Bus merch is only available for a limited time. Once the event’s over, the Desert Bus store closes up and everything leftover goes back into storage… until next year.

I’ve got some other questions not answered here.

Check out the LoadingReadyRun Store’s shipping info page for additional logistical information and shipping support. If you’ve got a question about the cool merch we have on sale this year, email [email protected]. Thanks for your support!

We’ve got about three days to go to #DB2021! Today we’re announcing some of the guests that’ll be calling in to this year’s Desert Bus for Hope. We’ve got quite a few, so here we go…

First, longtime friend of the bus and community manager for Child’s Play Charity, Tabitha Sheehan, joins Night Watch on Saturday, November 13th, at 7:00pm PST.

Next, longtime friend of the bus and sponsor of DenglerVision, the DBloons, and International Currency Minute,  Steve Dengler, calls in to Dawn Guard on Sunday, November 14th, at 9:00am PST.

Sunday evening, The Garages are here to bring the house down two years in a row with another call-in concert. Tune in live to listen to some great tunes during Night Watch on Sunday, November 14th, at 8:00pm PST.

On Monday, we welcome new guest SungWon Cho (a.k.a ProZD) to Alpha Flight to talk board games, voice acting, and hang out with the bus. We’ll be chatting live with ProZD on Monday, November 15th, at 1:00pm PST.

Monday evening, we have two guests! Longtime friends of the bus Andrew Cownden and Madeleine Suddaby are calling in to hang out and sing a few tunes. They’ll be joining Night Watch on Monday, November 15th, at 7:00pm PST.

Tuesday morning, we welcome a capella folk band and new guests The Longest Johns to chat with us about their latest shanties from “Smoke and Oakum.” They’ll be on Dawn Guard on Tuesday, November 16th, at 9:00am PST.

We’re on to Wednesday where, once again, Mikey Neumann calls in to join Dawn Guard in morning shenanigans. Do we have a new coffee pong challenger on our hands, perhaps? Mikey joins the Dawn Guard crew on Wednesday, November 17th, at 10:00am PST. 

Wednesday afternoon, we’re holding an Emergency Meeting with new call-in guest Victoria Tran, community director for Among Us and the newly released Unpacking. We talk about the art of organizing stuff on Wednesday, November 17th, at 2:00pm PST.

And… that’s it! Or… is it? You’ll just have to stay tuned to the feed and the official #DB2021 schedule at https://desertbus.org/events/schedule to see if there are any further surprises in store between now and the start of the run: Friday, November 12th at 6:00pm PST! You can learn more about each of our guests by visiting our Guests page at https://desertbus.org/events/guests.