We
posted about this a week ago, but a reminder can't hurt now that the auctions have actually gone live. If you're attending BlizzCon this year and
have the chance to visit Hall A, you'll see one of the original
World of Warcraft HP server blades that
Blizzard is auctioning this year to benefit
St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. But even if you're not going to BlizzCon, you still have a shot at bidding: All of the available server blades (from both North American and Europeanrealms) are listed on EBay, and you've still got time to bid on them all. Most of them are older realms that Blizzard has upgraded recently as part of server maintenance, and -- judging from the bids on some of them -- my guess is that a lot of players are interested in owning their old servers. Better yet, each auctioned server will have a plaque with the server's name, dates of operation, and Blizzard developers' autographs inscribed on it. If you want to see an example of what it'll look like, scroll down on
Blizzard's charity auction page.
If you're interested in owning a piece of
World of Warcraft history in addition to benefiting a great cause, you can find general information and Blizzard's two EBay listings for the server blades here:
Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Get ready to kick off the weekend with the WoW Insider Reader Meetup, cohosted by Wowhead and Gamebreaker.tv, and look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Tags: blizzard-charity-auction, blizzard-server-auction, blizzard-wow-server-auction, blizzcon, blizzcon-2011, charity, charity-auction, server, server-auction, server-blade, server-blades, servers, wow-server-auction
Filed under: BlizzCon
Oct 20th 2011 at 6:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dude Oct 20th 2011 6:50PM
Lol I love how Thrall is there with the Alliance leader rather than Garrosh. The true Warchief, eh?
Omegan01 Oct 20th 2011 11:44PM
Varian's also holding the wrong sword. /facepalm
(he's holding the Quel'serrar stand-in he was using in the Wrath beta before the Blizz team modeled Shallamayne)
Tri Oct 21st 2011 8:27AM
Does anyone -really- consider Garrosh as the Warchief of the Horde?
I didn't think so..
AudreyR Oct 20th 2011 6:55PM
I'm predicting Proudmoore to go for quite a bit. A server with as wonderful community as their's deserves to.
mem0ryburn Oct 20th 2011 7:02PM
I wish I were working at present, I would definitely take one home
mitch_b_666 Oct 20th 2011 7:19PM
Completely agree with you. However, even if you do manage to score one for their base price of $100, its going to be another $143.65 in shipping to the UK, or $307.82 to the US. Now (hopefully) that'll be going to the cause as well, but the differences in price seems rather extreme. Some places (such as Argentina) have prices of up to of $855.06!
vocenoctum Oct 20th 2011 8:19PM
US servers to US are only $35.
mem0ryburn Oct 20th 2011 8:54PM
Mine would be coming to Canada and it's $92.60 shipping here. If I could luck into a $100 steal it's still gonna cost me nearly $200 :/
mem0ryburn Oct 20th 2011 8:57PM
If anybody's looking to help a stranger help a charity, I can get the blade if you can get the shipping! lol :P
mem0ryburn Oct 20th 2011 10:02PM
Totally going to save a few bucks and hope to luck out on a half reasonable auction in the last week. As somebody who gets immense amounts of joy from my ever growing collection of WoW memorabilia this would easily be my pièce de résistance
Iirdan Oct 20th 2011 7:23PM
I just placed a bid on one of the Runetotem blades. I would be quite enthused to own a bit of myself.
mem0ryburn Oct 20th 2011 9:00PM
best of luck!
Awesome Oct 20th 2011 7:23PM
I just have one question.
What is the level of functionality of these servers? Can you paste a character into the server? Would quests work? Does it work, or does it not function, just... owning it?
To clarify, are these servers usable in any way or form, or do you just own it for the kicks of saying "I own a server"
Drakkenfyre Oct 20th 2011 7:37PM
They are sitting with a plastic cover, and do not work.
It's unlikely you could even power them up. This is an individual blade in a server. Each server was made up of many blades. The software would have been wiped. Absolutely no way would Blizzard let you have the software that runs the servers. They won't even tell you what it is, let alone give you a copy.
StClair Oct 20th 2011 9:26PM
The latter. It's a high-tech paperweight with souvenir/sentimental value.
Spider Oct 20th 2011 11:29PM
They are not functional at all, but that's not really the point in owning them. These are like those records you frame and never play, the guitar pick from your favourite artist that you won't use yourself but keep as a memorabilia item.
The plaque on the servers read:
"Blizzard Entertainment has carefully preserved and archived our retired server blades, releasing only a limited number for a noble cause. To us, this server blade is more than just hardware: within the circuits and hard drive, a world of magic, adventure, and friendship thrived. From fishing in quiet lakes to defeating Arthas in Icecrown Citadel, this blade was home to thousands of immersive experiences across the world of Azeroth and beyond. We thank you for the safekeeping of this important part of history."
I would love to have one for the above reasons, just as a little piece of history. :)
Luuc Oct 20th 2011 8:49PM
Fascist Thrall
Magma Oct 20th 2011 9:52PM
It's times like this I wish I were richer. Would love to own a piece but sadly they are already out of my price range for a non-utility item. I'm sure the other future blade auctions will be the same. Oh well, at least people richer than myself will end up giving lots more than I ever could :P
Kagato Oct 20th 2011 9:54PM
Can you imagine Thrall and Varian fighting side by side, how badass would that be? :D
wowinsider Oct 20th 2011 10:25PM
Oh boy, more old computer hardware that I could have sitting around gathering dust!