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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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    6 minutes ago, seapotato said:

    Thanks for doing that Ed! ☺

    No problem.  I wish PayPal would change their policy about raffles, because I know people would have bought more if it was enabled for the raffle instead of regular donations, but I will buy tickets with my credit card and give members the numbers.  They could PayPal me the money.  

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    24 minutes ago, Poly 30286 said:

    @Ed Mack is there a way to see how many tickets were sold in each? I am thinking about buying a couple more tickets, but hoping to play the best odds

    FWIW, this request was denied earlier in the thread.  Besides, wouldn't this give late purchasers an unfair advantage?

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    52 minutes ago, Poly 30286 said:

    @Ed Mack is there a way to see how many tickets were sold in each? I am thinking about buying a couple more tickets, but hoping to play the best odds

    I bet, if you carefully consider each lot, you could figure out which sets are the most popular and make an educated guess as to which ones have more interest. At least that's what I tried to do.

    However, at this point I don't remember which tickets I bought. 

    Edited by Migration
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    As a St Paul School parent, I am overwhelmed by the support for this cause and the money Ed and Jeff have helped raised through this fundraiser. It really speaks to how special SPS is for our families to give so much of themselves to help support our school!  Thank you to everyone who hs purchased raffle tickets! Thank you for understanding how special SPS is to our families. http://www.stpaulbrl.org

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    Is it possible to get the 7 tickets for $50 and spread them across the prizes? Or is the quantity discount only available within one prize each?

    Not that it matters, but just curious. Happy to help either way, and i hope you guys meet your goal.

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    7 minutes ago, mudcatsfan said:

    Is it possible to get the 7 tickets for $50 and spread them across the prizes? Or is the quantity discount only available within one prize each?

    Not that it matters, but just curious. Happy to help either way, and i hope you guys meet your goal.

    No. Just 7 on one item/bundle.

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    5 minutes ago, pstebbing said:

    No. Just 7 on one item/bundle.

    cool thanks. Won't impact my giving either way. 

    I'm hoping there will be a groundswell of giving end of month as folks get off their butts and give. 

    Procrastinators for the win!

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    On 1/11/2016 at 5:28 PM, Mos_Eisley said:

    Alright, I'm selling likes!

    I've already bought some raffle tickets, but just for fun, for every "like" this post gets from members who joined before the time of this posting, I'll spend an equal amount on more tickets, up to $250.  If it gets beyond that, I'll figure out how much more I'll spend.

     

    Let's set a like record!

    Don't let Mos Eisley off the hook!!!  PAGE 10

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    The wife and I finally decided which item we wanted to get our tickets for.  Thanks Ed and Jeff for organizing this and giving all of us a chance to do something for you guys for a change.  The site certainly has been and continues to be an amazing resource and my wife and I both hope that the funds for St Paul School are able to be raised.

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    8 hours ago, doejaster said:

    The wife and I finally decided which item we wanted to get our tickets for.  Thanks Ed and Jeff for organizing this and giving all of us a chance to do something for you guys for a change.  The site certainly has been and continues to be an amazing resource and my wife and I both hope that the funds for St Paul School are able to be raised.

    Definitely, this is a great grass-roots cause.

    Sadly, due to money constraints ATM (I'm a casual worker currently getting a measly 8 hrs a week with a wife and kid) and the low AUD, I only managed to get one ticket. However, I'll see if I can make an extra ebay sale or two before it ends and get more ;)

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    Long time visitor, first time poster. I felt compelled after seeing this fundraiser. I'm also from New Jersey and I just wanted to thank you for supporting education in New Jersey. Parochial schools receive little- to no- state or federal aid so I think it's simply awesome that you've initiated this fundraiser. Although the school is not facing imminent closure, my son will be starting at a Catholic high school in September, and I truly appreciate the difficulty parochial schools have continuing to operate in the face of mounting costs and the never-ending list of unfunded state and federal mandates. I wish you the best of luck.

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    On 1/26/2016 at 1:13 PM, Ed Mack said:

    To be fair, I think that's balanced out by the stress you feel while looking at your bank account . . . I just hope I can slip it through without my girlfriend noticing the money mysteriously missing.
     

    On a more serious note: The Lego community is honestly one of the best communities I've had the pleasure of being a part of. I have yet to have a single bad experience in the AFOL communities. Catholic schools (and other similar private schools) are simply some of the best in the nation. Even if you don't support the religion, Catholicism has been, for literally hundreds and hundreds of years, one of the major contributors to education. There's been rough patches, but today most Catholic schools are competitive and provide a fantastic learning environment for kids. I'm just a poor college student scraping by and I don't have a lot of money to pitch in, but it's hard to stand by and not help such a fantastic cause championed by such incredible and wonderful people, people who don't hesitate to put both their time and money into our Lego communities. Thanks guys!

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    Longtime visitor, first time poster.

    Non-catholic, catholic high school alumni myself.  Just felt compelled to say that this school sounds like a great cause (and I say that as a non-catholic!), and I'm dang happy to have a chance to contribute.  $50 for a bunch of kids, PLUS a chance to win a few great sets?  Win win for everybody.  Hoping the total reaches $100K+!

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