Jump to content
  • Brickpicker Raffle Fundraiser for a Great Cause!!


    Ed Mack

    Hello LEGO fans, collectors and resellers…

    Many of you may already know who I am, but for those of you that may have just learned about Brickpicker, my name is Ed Maciorowski and I would like to ask you for a few moments of your time. Over the past five years, my brother Jeff and I have operated the BrickPicker site at no cost to members and fans. All we ever asked from members was to click on affiliate links to help pay for the site expenses, which cost members little or no out of pocket money. Many of you have gained valuable information and insight from our data and forum community that enabled you to make money from LEGO collecting and reselling. Often, people would ask how can we help the BrickPicker site and its creators and we would say thanks for the offer, but no thanks, we felt uncomfortable taking donations. Well, we have a way for all of you to help out not only me, but over 150 children and their families.

    Let me introduce you to the St. Paul School of Burlington, NJ…

    My son, Max, is a member of the Kindergarten class in St. Paul School. He has attended the school since September and adores it. My wife, Jane, and I also adore the school. It is everything a school should be. It’s a school where everyone knows your name and there is a sense of pride and respect not found in many other larger schools. I cannot explain it, but there is an ambience of goodness in the building. Sounds corny I know, but as a person who has the word “evil” in his email address, I can tell you that I know when something deserves special recognition as a “good” thing. But it’s not only me who recognizes a great school. St. Paul School was voted the “Best Private School” in Burlington County, NJ and won numerous other awards. St. Paul School’s graduates constantly excel in high schools throughout Central NJ, with a large portion of graduates appearing on the National Honor Society and finishing top in their classes as Valedictorians and Salutatorians. To find out more about the St. Paul School, you can check out their website

    stpaul_school_fundraiser_max_small.jpg.d

    So here is the situation. St. Paul School is a Catholic school and as many people know, Catholic schools always have a hard time paying the bills to remain open. While St. Paul School and other Catholic schools welcome all religions and people, they are not funded by state or federal tax dollars and must adhere to many policies of the Catholic church and their Dioceses. Unfortunately, due to the weak economy and other forces outside of their control, enrollment in Catholic schools is down, putting more and more pressure on the school’s and local church’s budgets to remain open. This is an ongoing battle and fundraising has become an annual ritual in every Catholic school in the nation and most likely, the world. Everyone has to do their part to help out and Jeff and I are doing ours. Here is our plan…

    Jeff and I are going to personally RAFFLE OFF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF RARE AND RETIRED LEGO SETS! These sets are from our personal collections and they include the:

    • 10188 Death Star
    • 10228 Haunted House
    • Sealed Case of 64 Series 10 Collectible Minifigures (MR.GOLD might be in there!)
    • 10224 Town Hall
    • 10225 Ultimate Collector Series R2-D2
    • MORE SETS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!!

    That is well over $2000.00 in LEGO sets. All are retired and appreciating in value as we speak. I will personally ship them to anywhere in the world at my cost and in a proper shipping container. There will be one winner for each set and you must buy tickets for each raffle separately. One person can win all the sets if they enter all five raffles. There are discounted tickets available and the raffle will be run on the www.rallyup.com website, which is a very reputable and trustworthy fundraising site. They will automatically pick the winners at 11:59 PM on January 31, 2016 and will notify the winners. I will then ship out the winning LEGO sets to their new owners. The raffle and link to share can be found below:

                                               https://rallyup.com/stpaul-2016

    Each ticket costs $10.00 and enables you to enter one LEGO set raffle of your choice. $50.00 will cover all five iconic LEGO sets. ALL OF THE PROCEEDS (besides the commission to www.rallyup.com) goes to St. Paul School and to its corresponding church, The Parish of Saint Katharine Drexel, which helps the school operate. Tickets can be paid with any major credit card and the site is secure. Unfortunately, PayPal does not get involved with “raffles,” so PayPal can only be used for direct donations. I know that is a minor inconvenience, but if their is an issue, contact Jeff or I and we can see what we can do about transferring money to our PayPal account and paying for your raffle tickets. If we get a great response from people, we might add a few major sets or collectible and rare items to the raffle contest.

    On a personal note, I just have to say that I feel awkward asking people to help and for money, but the St. Paul School kids, faculty and community are worth it. They need to raise $200,000 by the end of January in order to keep the doors open and I am pulling all of my strings to help get them to that goal. I need your help. Period. If you value quality education and teaching children morals and respect, then supporting a school like St. Paul is paramount to the future well being of this planet. To the BrickPicker community...Show the LEGO world that we are more than just a bunch of Quick Flipping Low Lifes….that we care and have a heart, even though we buy all of Little Timmy’s LEGO sets up to resell. LOL. Honestly, this is important to Jeff and I and I want to be proud of our community that we have built over the past 5+ years. If you want to repay us for all of the efforts we have made over the past five years, buy a ticket...or two...or five. My son and 150+ other kids and families, faculty and friends of the St. Paul School will thank you…

    CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FUNDRAISER

    PLEASE HELP AND SHARE THIS BLOG POST ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND
    OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS!!

     

    If you are interested in just making a donation and want to use Paypal, you can.  Just click the purchase link on the right side bar.  On the next page you will see a checkbox that will allow you to just make a donation.  Check that box and you will then see options for payment.  Paypal is not available for buying raffle tickets, it is against their terms.

    stpaul_fundraiser_donation.thumb.jpg.85a

    Edited by Ed Mack

    • Like 12



    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    7 minutes ago, MathBuilder said:

    That is funny I thought "friends i guess" meant that Phil B has a lot of BPer friends in the raffle that are sharing information. But now that I read that again it could totally mean the friends bundle. LOL

    I read it as the Friends bundle indeed .... and my lips stay sealed. I could be wrong of course, I have several tickets with a number between 20 and 40, but those were purchased before Christmas :) Still, based on general preferences and on some of my later purchases I'm quite sure I know the magic "low purchase count" bundle :) And before you think there is a truly realistic chance of winning that raffle, if my number is any indication the chance of a single ticket winning that raffle is less than 0.4%

     

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    8 minutes ago, river41 said:

    I hope you were planning on making more then the cost of the sets because otherwise why would you do it.

    you ended up with a return of probably between 12-1 to 15-1 on your sets(if you count the original purchase price obviously that would be much higher

    It depends on what you mean by "return" or "making". His return is going to be 0. 

     

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    7 minutes ago, MathBuilder said:

    It depends on what you mean by "return" or "making". His return is going to be 0. 

     

    could probably get someone to make a ROI spreadsheet on the ROI of donating sets... with a comprehensive analysis of why its not a good investment to give good sets away in a raffle even though its for a good cause...  Then throw in the argument of whether Ed used his VIP points during double VIP month to obtain these sets that he raffled and whether that was a smart choice or not...

    • Like 2
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    7 minutes ago, MathBuilder said:

    It depends on what you mean by "return" or "making". His return is going to be 0. 

     

    I'm pretty sure that the total current market value of those sets counts as either a "donation" or a "write off" from a tax perspective, and that Ed gets some relief this way. And the only people making money here are the raffle winners (provided they didn't spend >$500 to get a single prize), RallyUp (they get a percentage) and OF COURSE the school, which was the whole reason for the raffle in the first place!

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    16 minutes ago, MathBuilder said:

    It depends on what you mean by "return" or "making". His return is going to be 0. 

     

    I am fairly certain his return will be a great school that his child and family will enjoy, with teachers and staff that will be grateful for what he and his family have done for them and the school. 

    • Like 2
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    15 minutes ago, ravenb99 said:

    could probably [...] whether Ed used his VIP points during double VIP month to obtain these sets that he raffled and whether that was a smart choice or not...

    ROTFL   Thanks for reminding me about that epic double VIP debate only at BP! 

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    26 minutes ago, river41 said:

    I hope you were planning on making more then the cost of the sets because otherwise why would you do it.

    you ended up with a return of probably between 12-1 to 15-1 on your sets(if you count the original purchase price obviously that would be much higher

    I honestly had no idea how this would play out.  My gut told me people would participate, but to this degree, I never really could have imagined.  I did it because the school needed my help and this was the best shot of making a substantial impact.  It could have flopped just as easily.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    21 minutes ago, Phil B said:

    I'm pretty sure that the total current market value of those sets counts as either a "donation" or a "write off" from a tax perspective, and that Ed gets some relief this way. And the only people making money here are the raffle winners (provided they didn't spend >$500 to get a single prize), RallyUp (they get a percentage) and OF COURSE the school, which was the whole reason for the raffle in the first place!

    I will not write these off.  I could care less about that stuff.  I have said this time and again, that's not how I roll.  There are no angles here.  It's a win for me to see my son in St. Paul for another year.  That's all this was ever about.  Getting one more year.  One battle at a time.

    19 minutes ago, Salimr said:

    I am fairly certain his return will be a great school that his child and family will enjoy, with teachers and staff that will be grateful for what he and his family have done for them and the school. 

    This^^^^

    • Like 3
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Remember, the raffle goes off at 1:59AM EST.  It was set to Arizona time.  I will throw in a Tower of Orthanc into the BrickPicker Bundle as well as the SSD if we reach $70,000.  

    • Like 3
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    12 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

    I will not write these off.  I could care less about that stuff.  I have said this time and again, that's not how I roll.  There are no angles here.  It's a win for me to see my son in St. Paul for another year.  That's all this was ever about.  Getting one more year.  One battle at a time.

     

    Ed, I didn't mean to imply this was your impetus for doing this .... not at all. Reading back I think I could have inserted a "Could" into that first sentence to make my statement clearer. The objective of my post was to illustrate that there were several winning camps in this, but foremost the school is who is "winning", which was the whole objective. And I think that they should name a wing of the building after you :)

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    13 minutes ago, Phil B said:

    Ed, I didn't mean to imply this was your impetus for doing this .... not at all. Reading back I think I could have inserted a "Could" into that first sentence to make my statement clearer. The objective of my post was to illustrate that there were several winning camps in this, but foremost the school is who is "winning", which was the whole objective. And I think that they should name a wing of the building after you :)

    I understand.  I will miss watching this ticker go up.  There were many days where it moved very little and I felt defeated, then other days it exploded and it was like winning at a slot machine or something similar.  It's been an interesting journey.

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    7 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

    I understand.  I will miss watching this ticker go up.  There were many days where it moved very little and I felt defeated, then other days it exploded and it was like winning at a slot machine or something similar.  It's been an interesting journey.

    I recall your frustration several weeks ago with the lack of response ... am I glad it turned out to be a solid case of procrastinatus superlativus.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Wow!!! this has doubled since I bought my tickets! That's awesome! So happy (make the AFOL's look good!)

     

    just made an account here and look forward to being part of the  Community here! 

    POWER HOUR! I think we can get 65,000 before it ends!!! Let's go!

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    1 hour ago, Ed Mack said:

    Remember, the raffle goes off at 1:59AM EST.  It was set to Arizona time.  I will throw in a Tower of Orthanc into the BrickPicker Bundle as well as the SSD if we reach $70,000.  

    I will throw in a Sea Cow (besides the SSD and Tower of Orthanc) into the BrickPicker Bundle if we hit $70,000.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    1 hour ago, Ed Mack said:

    Remember, the raffle goes off at 1:59AM EST.  It was set to Arizona time.  I will throw in a Tower of Orthanc into the BrickPicker Bundle as well as the SSD if we reach $70,000.  

    Just in case it gets there. I got a few more tickets for that bundle.

    Now BUY BUY BUY those tickets I want the SSD.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    1 hour ago, Ed Mack said:

    Remember, the raffle goes off at 1:59AM EST.  It was set to Arizona time.  I will throw in a Tower of Orthanc into the BrickPicker Bundle as well as the SSD if we reach $70,000.  

    Do the ticket sales close before the drawing? I decided to be a super procrastinator and was shut down while completing the transaction at 8:59 PST (my time). 

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I guess they locked it.  The raffle probably goes off at 1:59 AM(EST).  It was supposed to go off at 11:59 AM (EST), but I see the "2 hours left" icon.  It was originally set to stop at 12 PM on January 31st, but I asked them to move it back 12 hours to midnight.  They might not have coordinated the sales and raffle time.  Regardless, I would like to thank everyone for their generous donations.  As soon as I get the winners, I will contact them and work on a plan on shipping out the sets.  

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites




    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...