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  • 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

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    17 hours ago, pickleboy said:

    Just playin...

    Well honestly, at St. Paul, everyone knows your name. In the public school I might have to send him to if this fails...you are just a number or another brick in the wall. 300+ Kindergarteners. You do the math.

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    1 hour ago, masterX244 said:

    Too bad that paypal doesnt work for raffle tickets... In germany credit cards arent that common as in the US

    You can always make a paypal donation and maybe good Karma will strike and next time you go shopping you find a MISB Green Grocer or at least a Microfighter Series 1!

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    Go on then, in for a TH! Best of luck with that Ed. I can't say a catholic education ever did me any good haha, but sounds like your lad is happy there and that's all that matters really.

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    I'm a little surprised that we (as a community), have not reached the 10% (20k) of total needed yet, (of the 200k total budget needed for the school). There are some good raffle prizes, and a few weeks left, hope we can at least reach a decent mark to have this be a success. 

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    On 5/1/2016 at 5:59 AM, Ed Mack said:

    A Rallyup.com widget has been put on the homepage to show the current progress with the fundraiser.

    Some ideas...two simple rules:

     

    1) any brickpicker member HAVE to buy at least a ticket 

    2) put a litlle fee in any blickclassified deal to finance the campaign

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    14 minutes ago, glucapg said:

    Some ideas...two simple rules:

     

    1) any brickpicker member HAVE to buy at least a ticket 

    2) put a litlle fee in any blickclassified deal to finance the campaign

    Forcing people to buy something is NOT a good strategy.

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    2 hours ago, tractorboy said:

    Go on then, in for a TH! Best of luck with that Ed. I can't say a catholic education ever did me any good haha, but sounds like your lad is happy there and that's all that matters really.

    It's really not about "Catholic" education, it's about quality education.  There are many non-Catholics in the school.  It's about a sense of respect and goodness that permeates through that building.  I cannot explain it.  I would hate to see a good thing die.  

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    5 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

    It's really not about "Catholic" education, it's about quality education.  There are many non-Catholics in the school.  It's about a sense of respect and goodness that permeates through that building.  I cannot explain it.  

    I know Ed, I was just joking. A good school is a good school, like you say. Glad to help out!

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    6 minutes ago, tractorboy said:

    I know Ed, I was just joking. A good school is a good school, like you say. Glad to help out!

    I know you were and I am grateful for your support.  I just wanted to make sure people knew that it's not about religion.  Far from it.  There are politics that I will not bore you with involved with this.  The only ones who suffer are the kids, families and faculty.  

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    40 minutes ago, glucapg said:

    Some ideas...two simple rules:

     

    1) any brickpicker member HAVE to buy at least a ticket 

    2) put a litlle fee in any blickclassified deal to finance the campaign

    I like your mindset.  LOL.  I was thinking more about flooding the entire LEGO secondary market with thousands of cheap LEGO sets as punishment to those who don't buy a raffle ticket.  :devil:

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    18 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

    I like your mindset.  LOL.  I was thinking more about flooding the entire LEGO secondary market with thousands of cheap LEGO sets as punishment to those who don't buy a raffle ticket.  :devil:

    Ed - Nobody wants your Chima Fire Bikes .. ;)

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    Some ideas...two simple rules:

     

    1) any brickpicker member HAVE to buy at least a ticket 

    2) put a litlle fee in any blickclassified deal to finance the campaign

    I like your mindset.  LOL.  I was thinking more about flooding the entire LEGO secondary market with thousands of cheap LEGO sets as punishment to those who don't buy a raffle ticket.  :devil:

    Wouldn't this result in a post on the daily deals thread about 1000's of cheap Legos for sale on :

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    31 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

    I like your mindset.  LOL.  I was thinking more about flooding the entire LEGO secondary market with thousands of cheap LEGO sets as punishment to those who don't buy a raffle ticket.  :devil:

    the final weapon :-) 

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    30 minutes ago, gregpj said:

    Ed - Nobody wants your Chima Fire Bikes .. ;)

    Between Jeff and I, we can send the LEGO secondary market back to the Stone Age if we so desire.:orc:

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    10 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

    Between Jeff and I, we can send the LEGO secondary market back to the Stone Age if we so desire.:orc:

    I am ready to sell thousands of modulars for $49.95

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    6 hours ago, masterX244 said:

    Too bad that paypal doesnt work for raffle tickets... In germany credit cards arent that common as in the US

    You can make a donation too, without raffle. That wat you can use paypal.

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    Listen, if people want to us their PayPal, you can donate or you can message me and PayPal me the money and I can buy you the tickets.  I would be willing to go the extra mile.  

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    Lots of people have asked for some sort of fee structure for the site in the past two years, and you guys have refused, saying it doesn't fit your vision. I hope and imagine a great majority of those folks who are still active have contributed. I can't imagine significantly active members not being aware of the raffle by now.

    This is a chance to, essentially, "pay" for the incredible benefit of membership on this site, AND support a greater cause at the same time. This proves the ideals and vision of the founders in a significant way, and I have great respect for that.

    Sure, finances may be tight for a few folks out there right now. But if you are a member of more than a few weeks reading this, and have posted in the "daily deals" thread, "clearance deals", "what I bought today", or spent any money whatsoever on Lego in the time since you became aware of the fund raiser, hopefully you have already donated. Otherwise, I ask respectfully that you seriously ask yourself how you would feel if you reached out for a VERY SMALL favor to people you "work" with and generally have respect for... and almost no one responded. Ouch, right?

    It only takes one $10 ticket to make a small difference, and for cryin' out loud, take a quick guess at what this site has been worth to you since you joined.

    If the answer is not at least $10, then what the heck are you doing here?

    A quick scan of those threads answers the question clearly: "Not giving back".

    Step up, folks. Please.

    Edited by Grynn
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    Just picked up a few tickets.  Happy to donate to a good cause; you’re doing a valiant effort promoting this one guys.
    Hopefully a few more brickpickers out there just like me, procrastinating on buying a few tickets (and my message would be stop reading this and make that donation J).

    Wouldn’t be where I am today without a great education (probably the same for most on here). Always going to be a lot of worthwhile causes to help but to having an opportunity to help out the younger generation is a definite no brianer to me.

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