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…

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.

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3 hours ago, hoppin said:

Is a direct donation tax deductible?  Are they are 501c3?

 

Yes 

Notes: All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law. The Parish of St. Katharine Drexel's Tax ID Number is 210-647-713

3 hours ago, hoppin said:

Is a direct donation tax deductible?  Are they are 501c3?

 

Yes.  See above^^^^^

I've been meaning to contribute but was having a hard time deciding which one(s) to buy.  Finally figured I had procrastinated long enough, so I bought a few tickets tonight.

I am glad to do my share, partly as a thank you for this website and partly because if my own daughter's school were in a similar situation, I would do whatever I could to keep it open too.

Good luck on the continued fundraising effort!  I truly hope it is successful!!!

1 hour ago, customav said:

as a side note (which I post first in case you decide not to read my entire post) Ed, If I am so lucky I'll be happy to provide you a label using my fedex account number to send it so it doesn't cost you out of your pocket.

And actually I'll do you one better (regardless if I win or not): If you package the products, weigh them, measure the boxes and send me all the info including the winners name and address info I will provide you with labels from Fed-Ex and pay for all the shipping. The only thing I would ask you is to take the money you would have spent on shipping (which I can provide via my account) and give the school an additional check for this amount (if thats cool with you since you would be spending them money anyway, it will be on my company's account so it is an extra tax write off and what the hell, I had a good year last year and I'm not going to take it with me when I go so may as well spend a little more while I'm at it).

I don't think I have ever posted but I have enjoyed the site more than you know although I probably could have made a few extra mortgage payments with out it!

I'm all for a cause and normally get a lot of requests during the year but I will say that the raffle got me going and on top of it I used to work for a software company years ago that catered to private schools for administrative software and while I never had the pleasure one of my (still) good friends did some work at St. Pauls and always had great things to say.

I know fundraising is tough for schools and it is such a shame because at the end of the day it is where it all comes together for children and they need the support.

So here is to you for the effort and here is to my hope of getting some Star Wars and some mystery bundles...... 49 tickets in and hoping for some fun to go with it!

You are very generous and I will take you up on your offer.  I am humbled by the response from members.  I know there are a lot of great LEGO sets in the raffle, but there is more going on here than LEGO sets.  The LEGO community as a whole is a special bunch.  People might scoff at our hobby...laugh at our passion, but this is a community that has shown that it does care and is filled with articulate and generous people.  I am very proud to be a part of this event and I am praying that it will be enough to keep the school open.  My gut tells me it will...Thanks everyone...Keep it coming.  .  

Holy blow the doors off the stable Batman!  I am gone to my son's ski race for a couple hours, and the whole place has gone crazy.  My $300 has now been donated.  Thanks everyone for fulfilling my pledge.

I think it goes without saying that to be a part of this community (AFOL hobbyists/"investors"), we're pretty likely to have a fair bit of disposable income     The inspiring part is that we're eager to put it towards a good cause (a small token of our gratitude to the service you provide with this site & kids' educaton).  Great to see the $35k mark well within reach!

Hi Ed,

Thanks to your reminder, I just wanted to participate because not only am I a brave member of the Lego community but also a father of 2 boys, and we have the same issues over here in Europe as well (no matter if private or public school).

But I have the following problem: I can' t finish the final step because I always get the message " 2004: authorization failed on this credit card".

Well, I know that I am not the richest guy but I still have some bucks on my account.

I suppose the problem is that there is one field to enter the creditcardnumber but none to select the type of card (Visa, Master,etc.).

So now I am registered with rallyup.com but can't pay.

I would like to purchase at least one ticket for each of the sets ($110,-).

Can you help me out on this one? I really would like to contribute (and of course hope to be a winner, who doesn't ? ).

You also mentioned that there was a possibility for PayPal?

Thanks a lot in advance, I hope that I am not too late.

10 minutes ago, hadrake said:

Hi Ed,

Thanks to your reminder, I just wanted to participate because not only am I a brave member of the Lego community but also a father of 2 boys, and we have the same issues over here in Europe as well (no matter if private or public school).

But I have the following problem: I can' t finish the final step because I always get the message " 2004: authorization failed on this credit card".

Well, I know that I am not the richest guy but I still have some bucks on my account.

I suppose the problem is that there is one field to enter the creditcardnumber but none to select the type of card (Visa, Master,etc.).

So now I am registered with rallyup.com but can't pay.

I would like to purchase at least one ticket for each of the sets ($110,-).

Can you help me out on this one? I really would like to contribute (and of course hope to be a winner, who doesn't ? ).

You also mentioned that there was a possibility for PayPal?

Thanks a lot in advance, I hope that I am not too late.

Some international members have had problems with their credit cards through no one's fault. It's an issue on the card issuer's end.. you can try to call them directly and they'll give you more information over the phone OR you can send Ed a private PM and he'll hook you up.

Plenty of time to go.. $40k is in sight.

After digging for an hour I found another prepaid card and I am now trying for the Friends raffle (I already have some in R2D2 and S10 CMFs).  If I didn't promise the wifey to cut back spending I would have tossed in more (don't want her looking at the credit cards haha) - my mom and her whole side of the family are all teachers/professors and I really support good schools and learning like many of the other BP dads and moms.

I think we should be able to get to $40k. Come on BPers, sell those fire bikes and buy some tickets

Edited January 29, 201610 yr by colossus

1 hour ago, gregpj said:

Some international members have had problems with their credit cards through no one's fault. It's an issue on the card issuer's end.. you can try to call them directly and they'll give you more information over the phone OR you can send Ed a private PM and he'll hook you up.

Plenty of time to go.. $40k is in sight.

Thank you for the hint, I just sent a message to Ed.

Hope we can crack the $40k mark.

There is no value that can be put on the happiness of a child. If it comes with a great education, so much the better. Having two young children myself, I am happy to have supported this campaign. Good luck!

Bought my tickets

Best of luck with the campaign!!

So tonight being Friday of pay week it is beer and food night out.

I am forgoing my beer and food out quota and buying extra tickets.  (don't tell the wife)

I will gladly use my PayPal account to buy tickets. I have already done it several times. Just send me a PM and we will start the process. I will give you my PayPal email and you send me the money and tell me what tickets to buy. I will then buy you the tickets and send you the confirmation page from the Rallyup site. Thanks.

In a world governed by greed and selfishness it's refreshing to see so many people pull together for such a worthy cause. I've got the upmost respect for Ed and Jeff organizing this fundraiser and feel an overwhelming sense of community spirit. Good luck with your goal.

23 minutes ago, Crustybeaver said:

In a world governed by greed and selfishness it's refreshing to see so many people pull together for such a worthy cause. I've got the upmost respect for Ed and Jeff organizing this fundraiser and feel an overwhelming sense of community spirit. Good luck with your goal.

It's amazing really.  Each small step gives us a chance to keep the school open.  The LEGO community has really come through...

Noble deed Ed and the BrickPicker family.  Sending support from the Land Down Under.  

For some reason my (European) MasterCard is not accepted by the site.

Error code:

2004: authorization failed on this credit card

Tried it with different cards. Always the same story.

Would anybody know, why?

(credit card is definitly valid)

13 minutes ago, kupferkessel said:

For some reason my (European) MasterCard is not accepted by the site.

Error code:

2004: authorization failed on this credit card

Tried it with different cards. Always the same story.

Would anybody know, why?

(credit card is definitly valid)

 

 

Seems you folks in Austria are having some trouble today.

6 minutes ago, gregpj said:

 

 

Seems you folks in Austria are having some trouble today.

yes we do, but hey, don't let's talk about politics....  ;-)

it's just about my credit card

19 minutes ago, kupferkessel said:

For some reason my (European) MasterCard is not accepted by the site.

Error code:

2004: authorization failed on this credit card

Tried it with different cards. Always the same story.

Would anybody know, why?

(credit card is definitly valid)

I will buy tickets for you through Paypal if you want.  I have already done it for three other members.  

6 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

I will buy tickets for you through Paypal if you want.  I have already done it for three other members.  

thx. I do appreciate that very much. Which information do you need from me?

1 hour ago, kupferkessel said:

thx. I do appreciate that very much. Which information do you need from me?

@kupferkessel: Hello from the neighbourhood (Biedermannsdorf bei Wien)!

You only have to send Ed a private PM and he then gives you his PayPal email. You send him the money and tell him, how many tickets for which set/bundels.

He already helped me out today because I had the same problem with my Mastercard. That's what gregpj meant by "Seems you folks in Austria are having some trouble today. "

Hope that helped.

$40,000!  This is fantastic!  How about $50,000?  We have two and a half days!!!

We just passed 40k!!!  This thing is popping like it just retired and the horde didn't have time to stock up.  Who can say 50k?  I can.  Let's do it.