Over the years I've brought and sold enough on this forum to help stabilise the British economy and try to save us from recession. Things are due to drastically change though.
As some of you will be aware my wife is currently pregnant (our 4th child) and unfortunately she has been having significant health issues which have increased the likelihood of a very premature baby being delivered. Because of this we are trying to free up enough funds so we can afford to make some big changes a few months earlier than planned if baby had been able to stay in!
The result of this has seen a lot off my decent gear turn up in the classifieds and it will continue. I am now trying to sell my 95 USA Fender Standard Telecaster which has been listed for a fair few weeks now. I had a buyer lined up but unfortunately that fell through. Ideally I'd now like to get it sold quickly and I didn't think £575 was too outrageous an ask. I thought about listing it on eBay but then came up with another idea but didn't know where I'd stand with it.
If the mods could chip in to advise. If it is a goer I'd be interested to get an idea of potential takers.
I've considered listing myTele as a raffle by selling tickets/places in order to raise the equivalent sales price I was after. If there was masses of interest then that could either reduce the ticket price or any money over the top of the asking price could go to a charity of the winners choice or towards this site depending on everyone's feeling.
I have no idea if this could be possible on here and if so how many folks would be interested. Tickets could range anywhere from £5-£20 depending on interest: eg £5 needs at least 115 places sold, £20 needs 29 places sold. People could purchase multiple places if they wished to increase their chances.
I'm not sure of the technical and legal aspects of running this on here. If I've missed something in the rules about this type of thing then I'm sorry and please feel free to delete this post if needed mods.
Any thoughts?
Comments
I'd be a competitor at no more than £10 per ticket, I can't justify spending more than that on a competition no matter how good the prize is.
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I hope you do not take offence, but £10, as suggested above does seem a bit steep.
You might get more uptake at £5
Or even £1, if people want to spend £10 they still can, they just get 10 chances.
I appreciate you might get a bit more hassle the more tickets you sell (potentially 575+) but you might get more in the long run.
Just my opinion, please tell me to jog on if I'm poking my nose in!
Seeing that if we are going to go £10 a pop, I suggest using the National lottery as a guide, 49 numbers and whatever the first ball will be, that'll be the winner.
I guess we could make the ticket £12 a pop to bring it down to 48 tickets and you still get £575.
That would work out perfect. We can pay you via PayPal, and then before the Saturday draw you post a table with everyone who has entered their number (1-48).
If the first ball happens to be 49 then we can use the 2nd ball as the winner.
The down side however it means there is a limit of entries....so I guess not such a good idea after all!
This seems to be a new(ish) way of selling gear. I think there's a couple of 'raffles' on facebook i've seen. I guess its quite enterprising, but can see it becoming popular initially, and then.....annoying.
Some general (not aimed directly at you) key questions on the process....What's the timeframe of the raffle, what if you don't reach the desired amount? If you go over, would you refund or keep it? How do you keep it fair? What stops people giving it to their mate once they've reached the total? What stops people withdrawing their funds at the end of the process if paid through Paypal?
In line with @RaymondLin the lottery balls could definitely be the most unbiased way. To keep costs down tickets could be £6 and people could be allocated a number between 3 and 97 for each place purchased. The first 2 balls out on the following Saturday Lottery draw added together could give the winning number.
It would rely on selling enough to reach the 95 tickets though to go ahead (£570 total). If this method of drawing they winning number was used then the total couldn't be exceeded. If interest could be gathered first and when there seems to be enough numbers the places could then be sold.
The main issues would be around payment and as @Parker stated, what's to stop people withdrawing the money afterwards if they don't win. I wouldn't want to be accused of being like Devi Ever though if it didn't go ahead so I'd want to make sure there was a process in place if the numbers weren't reached for refunding.
It may just turn out to be a logistical nightmare but thought it was worth an ask.
If anyone has any good ideas about how to sort out paying in to the raffle and ensuring it is unbiased and money safe then I'd be keen to hear.