Furry auction site FurBuy remains offline, a month after it was abruptly taken down, leading to severe corruption of the 19-year-old site's database.

Site owners say May 23's emergency shutdown was intended to recover from a freeze triggered by a self-styled security researcher's access, and announced a months-long renovation.

The researcher revealed their involvement, claiming to have been blocked by FurBuy after contacting them on Twitter. They said they did not access the database, but that someone using the vulnerability they found would be able to do so - which is disputed by the site owners.

Modern database systems and server hardware are meant to cope with unanticipated downtime by writing to disk in such a way that the data can always be recovered to a consistent state; however, this requires appropriate configuration, and tends to decrease overall performance. It is also possible for hardware to fail under stress.

The last successful backup of the site was made in October 2017, but this remained unnoticed after the death of long-time system administrator Mordrul last August, from thyroid cancer.

This week, the furry world was rattled by news from the fandom’s bidding site of Dealer’s Den when a record setting bid closed out a battle to acquire a fursuit from the highly in demand Made Fur You. The final bid came in at $13,500 dollars by Desafinado, a fursuit collector who already has two to their name made by Mischief Makers, dropped the wad of cash to secure their third. They plan on making a horned cat character named Sage with it. They have done an interview over the transaction with Dog Patch Press that can be found here.

If anyone was curious as to what the suit will be. This is the character I am looking to get done. I was debating between this one and my bunny; but there are some other makers I would prefer to have my bunny done by, so Sage is the choice. pic.twitter.com/fzy1kzto55— Desafinado (@DezziFae) January 30, 2018

The transaction has brought up many critical statements. In those they note that the amount of money is the amount of a car, or a sizable down payment on a mortgage. Of course, such comparisons to practical commodities overlook the fact that the purchaser in question may already have shelter and a mode of transportation that they are secure and happy with. Finances are a very personal thing, and it takes some perspective to realize that there is always someone out there who will make a less practical financial decisions in the world when they are secure in the needs department. In fact many furry artists bank on this.

When people are bored, they may begin to dig through old bookmarks, go through old emails, and rustle through things with a slight sense of nostalgia. This is what brought about the discovery that the domain Furbid.ws was for sale.

Older furries may have used furry auction sites such as this site from years ago. Furries used auction sites almost exclusively for many years before many found that announcing commissions on FurAffinity got noticed more than an auction. FurBid was founded in 1999 when it was owned and run by Aatheus.

No information on why it is being sold is available, though WikiFur suggests it stopped its run December 5 of last year.

Between July 1 and September 8, the Gromit Unleashed exhibition saw the city of Bristol play host to several dozen statues of Gromit, the anthropomorphic dog from Wallace and Gromit.

On 3 October, the statues were auctioned to raise money for an expansion of Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. One lot, Gromit Lightyear, designed by animation studio Pixar and depicting Gromit as Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise, sold for £65,000.

The eighty-one statues, depicting Gromit in a variety of styles, were designed by several artists, including Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit), and Simon Tofield (animator of Simon's Cat). In total, £2.3 million was raised for the hospital. Nick Park said he was "stunned" by how successful the auction was.

This is extremely short notice, but this Saturday (6-10PM) the Van Eaton Galleries in the Sherman Oaks suburb of Los Angeles are holding the opening reception for The HB Show, “a group art show tribute to Hanna-Barbera” of paintings by numerous artists including some of HB’s former staff. The paintings are mostly of HB’s human characters such as the Flintstones and Penelope Pitstop, but there are some of Yakky Doodle, Scooby-Doo, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and H-B's other anthropomorphic animal characters.

More importantly, the whole art show/auction is online. You can still see it all and bid on unsold paintings.

The HB Show will be up at the Van Eaton Galleries, 13613 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, Calif. 91423, (800) 599-3693, until April 20 (Adolf Hitler’s birthday! Is this significant?), so if you can get there, you can still see it all even after the art auction. And, of course, the Van Eaton Galleries have other animation goodies on display.

Furry auction site FurBuy has added a classified listings service, among other updates, positioning it as a "furry Craigslist". Listings so far include furry identification badges, a skunk suit for sale, and a request for a sewing partner. However, ongoing competition from social art sites has lead to a threat of closure later this year, reminiscent of those made over a decade ago.

Earlier this year, tragedy struck the furry community, when a couple was struck by a drunk driver while they were walking their dogs. All four dogs were killed, and the boyfriend – Harison Long-Randall (Elden) – later succumbed to his injuries as well, after selflessly and heroically pushing his girlfriend Gemily West (Wolfgem) away from the recklessly speeding vehicle, and taking the brunt of the impact himself.

The sheer horror of the tragedy and outrage at this hit-and-run spread through the furry community like wildfire. But nothing we do can replace the loss Gemily must feel. So we do what little we can: and that little is to hold a fundraiser to help Gemily financially with any outstanding medical or other expenses during her time of loss.

Furry End of the World will be holding a special collection at the convention and will donate 100% of the proceeds from the art auction to Wolfgem. Furry EotWC is currently accepting donations of original art works, commission gift certificates, fursuits or pieces, and other items of interest to the furry community to auction at the convention.

A copy of My Little Pony-themed erotica magazine Hoof Beat created by "popular furry artists" has been bid up to four figures at auction, with one day to go.

Two regular FurBuy users ran the price up to $826 over two days before new bidders joined in.

Another copy was recently sold for $150 on eBay, where the creators are listed as Sunshy, Wind Driven, Leche, Flanks and Don't Ask Spike.

The 58-page 10 5/8"x7 3/4" softcover colour work, produced in a print run of 200, was originally sold for $25 at Anthrocon 2012 via the Club Stripes table.

Three comics are included, plus a number of pin-ups.

The demand has caused other fans to put their copies up on FurBuy, with one selling for $305.

A set of four auctions featuring work by 60 artists has been launched to support Belgian fursuiter Cookie, who organizers say has been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

Each auction contains the work of at least 20 artists, and has a minimum bid of $250.

FurBuy site owner Jurann today announced a change in site leadership, having previously indicated his intention to resign from public-facing activities.

The new community manager, Mordrul, is to be responsible for leading and marketing FurBuy, as well as general administrative duties, while Jurann continues to handle feature requests.

The original Hugh T. Manatee, a regular member of the Funday PawPet Show cast, is up for auction.

Funds will be used to purchase new equipment for Poinkcast, HughTube and video archive digitization.

Update: The auction raised $102.50, just 43% of the winning bid for Poink T. Ferret in June 2007.

Puppeteer JR explained the sale [tip: BabsBunny]:

A few weeks ago, I started thinking, I'd love to have a YouTube channel focusing on stuff I've done and Hugh and Poink; [...] So, I created HughTube. [...] I decided I really wanted to build this up, film stuff with Poink and Hugh that hasn't been seen anywhere, and really build up the PoinkCast brand. I put together a list of stuff I'd need, and realized that if I did it all out of pocket it was going to take a while. So I posted it on FA and asked for donations.

Fifty artists have banded together, offering gifts in kind to organizations aiding victims of the T?hoku earthquake and tsunami. [tip: Banrai]

Their work is to benefit Direct Relief International, Doctors Without Borders and the Japanese Red Cross, and is being sold via group auctions organized by Quaylak and JakeJynx.

The first auction was launched last night and ends Monday. The second began a few hours ago. Three more are to be posted in subsequent days. Artists wishing to join in can do so until Friday.

Update (11 Apr): The third, fourth and fifth auctions have been posted.

The furry marketplace heated up today as FurBuy owner Jurann was "permanently banned" from Fur Affinity for "false threats against users holding auctions on FA instead of furbuy" and "disruption of the community, drama starting and interference with user transactions."

FA's Dragoneer gave his opinion of Jurann's attempts to pressure artists into using FurBuy:

Frankly, I'm sick of Jurann constantly threatening users, encouraging them to "Go to Furbuy...or else!"

In response, Jurann said Dragoneer "[took his] legal advice as a threat," while maintaining that FTC auction guidelines apply to Fur Affinity:

It's a simple fact that there ARE rules and guidelines, and they are quite clearly not being followed on FA at present.

FurBuy has proposed changes to their paid membership system, introduced last November.

The proposals include a 'feral' membership level for those with annual auction turnover between $500 and $2000, and the ability to pay for just a 3- or 6-month term.

Ever wanted a hand-sewn bat plushie by noted author Edward Gorey? Now's your chance, as Bloomsbury Auctions is running an estate sale. [tip: Higgs Raccoon/OzFurry]

The focus of the auction is fur coats, including a tanuki coat. However, there's a variety of other lots, including the aforementioned bat – a present for illustrator James Marshall, reminiscent of the lead character in The Gilded Bat. There's also a plush Figbash of the kind which accompanied the 26 lettered copies of The Raging Tide, a choose-your-own-adventure-style book by Gorey.

But you'd better get down to the New York auction house at 6 West 48th Street quickly – bidding starts at 11AM Eastern today. (Bids also accepted at Live Auctioneers and the-saleroom.com)