Eddie Caven, owner of Key Date Coins, one of our top coin-selling auction houses, has challenged other auctioneers who appreciate the news and information on Proxiblog to donate to our scholarship fund … or at least in your next auction to dedicate one lot, as he is doing, with proceeds sent to that fund.

Eddie wrote us recently about how Proxiblog has helped his business. “That makes the drive to be successful that much more intense,” he said. “As for the donation to Iowa State, I’m starting to list an auction for January 14th. What I intend to do is list an item and state all proceeds from that lot go towards your Scholarship Account Fund. I would like to challenge all auction houses to do the same.”

If you are wondering why we are making an appeal for student scholarships, see this report today from Inside Higher Ed. Please take a moment, click the link, and see why this is a crisis for our youth.

Our appeal is very real as higher education is saddling an entire generation with lifelong student debt. If you run a family auction house, as many of our patrons do, and hope to pass down your business to your heirs, keep in mind that student debt–now larger than the entire US credit card debt–will impact your business in the future.

We publish Proxiblog without taking any advertisements or payment from any entity, including Proxibid. We have been approached to accept advertising, and we turned down offers. We give freely of our expertise in our off-hours. We are entirely independent, and our advice to auction houses emanates from expertise in the numismatic industry.

Proxiblog has more than 8677 views since May 2011, when we began publishing. Since then we have posted a virtual book about online auctioneering in our “Articles” page. This book is of an Amazon Kindle length, replete with photos and links, provided free of charge to our viewers.

Concerning our number of viewers, WordPress informed us that a New York City subway train holds 1,200 people, requiring more than 7 trips to carry that many viewers. In 2011, there were 113 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 115 posts. There were 273 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 28mb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.

Most visitors came from the United States. Canada and The United Kingdom were not far behind. The most popular pages were “Articles” and “Boos and Booyahs.”

We’re relying on auction houses to help us continue bringing you the best on Proxibid. Our reputation in the numismatic industry ensures that bidders as well as auctioneers are reading our material.

Donations are voluntary, of course. We know times are tough in the economy. But if you patronize our site and can spare “a lot”–double meaning, intended!–please do so today.

Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.