2 hours ago, Ed Mack said:

We are getting there. This raffle really helped. I never really expected this. I was hoping just to make enough to cover the costs of the sets. Honestly., I am amazed by the recent activity. I knew people could help. But would they? The answer was a resounding yes. We still have a 6 or 7 hours to reach $60,000.

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

Tardy to the party, but done! Thanks for the reminder e-mail and good luck with the cause--nice to see how much the number climbed since I checked earlier in the week.

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%

 

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. 

 

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...

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!

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. 

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! 

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.

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^^^^

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.  

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

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.

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.

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!

Back in for the good of the cause. Keep this thing going !

Bought another $100 to see if we can push this to $65k.

19 minutes ago, Phil B said:

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.

Me too.  There are many, many generous LEGO fans that helped chip into the cause.  You gotta keep the faith...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQyVUTcpM4

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.

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.

6 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

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

Holy COW! 

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). 

yeah, me too.

Raffle Details

Raffle Drawing Date:January 31, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST

there is a contradiction on the page 

anyway. sale are closed

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.