OK here is my idea. Unfortunately because of my injury I had to sell off much of my silver coin collection. I also have a long way to go with my dream of filling up a 5 gallon fish tank with marbles for my daughter. She loves them and wants to fill up the tank and create like an art display by having it filled with a variety of marbles. Pretty funny eh? 7 year olds would usually be playing with marbles but instead she admires them and would do nothing to possibly ding them. I guess it is where I paint and used to play guitar when she was in mommy's belly. She has a lot of artist in her.
Also she has a coin collection herself. Foreign, and the one she really likes to work on is her books of Canadian pennies. She mainly needs pre-1960 pennies.
So here is my idea. One person thinks perhaps it is a bit too complicated perhaps they are right, but all the same please give me your opinion.
First off I want to mention it would be a reverse raffle. 3 prizes so far and perhaps another one will be located here before I start. The prizes are:
1. Dell Computer (sorry no monitor though) but it's hardly been used. I got it to help me with my lab setup to study for my MCSE certification. I have the certification and because of my hands I might not be working in computers any longer anyways. So it is really not necessary to me anymore. It is hardly used has 2 network cards (I had to buy a much better speed one to run server 2003 on it). The computer will be reloaded with a fresh clean XP load.
*****Last name drawn out will win this*****
The other 2 prizes so far are the BH poineer 505 detector (cost me about $325 new), I used it for about 5 months. I got another detector and was going to have this as my wifes detector, but she really doesn't get into detecting, so it doesn't get used.
And finally a hardly used VCR.
I am also thinking very hard about adding as another prize an assortment of beautiful shell I gathered while scuba diving in Hawaii. The shells are absolutely georgous and would make beautiful display or present to anyone.
****Winning numbers of these items will be decided based on how many entry's are in the drawing. They will be even spaced out in the drawing. For example if there are 1000 entries then before the drawing I will pick out say number 235 to be drawn out for the shell collection, number 500 for the VCR, and number 775 for the BH Metal Detector****
Now here are the rules...what you can enter and the limits.
FIRST OFF LET ME SAY..although some of you know me and know that I am a good guy since there are a lot of new peps who do not know me the prizes will be pre-sent to a member that has been around for a very long time for him to test all the items and to be the one that sends out the prizes to the winners. I will not mention his name yet, but if I am given permission to do this I will be mention his name before I announce the raffle. This way you guys know this is not a scam at all and you have a valued long time members opinion of the shape of the prizes. The raffle will not even happen until he recieves the items and gives me the ok that he approves of the condition of the items and agrees that they are exactly what I say they are and work exactly as I say they do.
EACH person is allowed to enter up to a maximum of 35 items. In order to enter you will PM me for the address, this also lets me know that something is coming from you. Now here is the part that might be a little bit confusing to some people. Although you can only send in 35 items it is possibly to have your name (number actually I will explain that later) entered many more times than 35. This is obviously because some items are more valuable than others so some items get your name entered more times than others. The only wierd exception might be the number of entries for marbles. I really wish to get a good rounded collection of different marbles so I am giving a decent amount of entries per each of them.
Here is the chart. Behind some of the items is a maximum number. That quite easily means you can only send in a maximum of that amount for that item toward your total of 35 items max.
Wheat Penny - 1 entry for each one (Maximum 6 wheats per person)
*Pre-1960 Canadian Penny - 1 entry for each one (Maximum 4 per person)
Indian Head Penny - 2 entry's for each one (Maximum 2 per person)
V nickel, Buffalo, War nickel - 3 entries each (Maximum of 2 per person)
*Marbles - 4 entry's for each one (Maximum 10 per person)
40% silver half (1965-1970) - 4 entry's for each one (Maximum 4 per person)
Silver dime - 5 entry's for each one
Silver Quarter - 8 entry's for each one
Silver Half Dollar - 11 entry's for each one
Specialty catagory - 25 entry's for each of the following: Large Cent, 2 or 3 cent piece, Peace or Morgan dollar or Seated coin of any type
* On the Marbles please don't buy new marbles to turn in. I am certainly not asking anyone to send a marbleof high value or anything like that. Would just prefer that you send in ones that you havefound MDing. That way my daughter's marble collection would have much better variety. I put the marbles up at 3 entry's because weare trying to fill up a 5 gallon octoganol fish tank with marbles for my daughters collection. She wants to make ita display in her room that she can be proud of and keep as art for a very long time. Of course themarbles won't be glued or nothing like that so that they will still be a collectable as well.
*My daughter collects Canadian pennies. We have a book donated to her for pennies from Canada. She hasa great deal of Canadian pennies after 1960, not very many before so I added that catagory for her collection as well.
Now I will give you an example of how the entry's work and explain what I meant by a number instead of a name earlier:
For example if you send 3 wheat pennies, 2 pre-1960 canadian pennies, 5 marbles, 2 silver dimes,2 silver quarters and 1 peace dollar you will have 15 of the Maximum of 35 items. For those items you will get your name entered in the drawing as follows: 3 entry's for each the wheats, 2 for canadian, 15 for the marbles,
10 for the dimes , 16 for the silver quarters finally 25 for the peace
dollar. For those 15 items that you sent in you will get 71 entries in the drawing.
So as you see there is a maximum of 35 items to make it fair, but because of the values of items you will get much more entry's possible.
What I meant earlier by a number instead of your name. As each package arrives the person will get a number. For example if your package is the first one I will give you the number 1. Then next person's items that arrive will be number 2. I do this because it is easier for me to print out numbers on a sheet of paper to be cut up into entries. Plus since some names are real long, this way I can guarantee through numbers that all slips of folded papers that my daughter will draw will all be the same size from the start. Otherwise someone with a long name might have a slip of paper folded up that is much bigger than others, thus it might stick out when my daughter feels though the pile to pick, if so it might be unfair to that person.
As soon as your entry items arrive I will contact you by PM and tell you your number.
I will also have a reply on the drawing announcement that will have a number and how many times they are entered in the drawing. By keeping it as a number it will give anonymity to all of you entering.
The person holding the prizes will have the money for shipping as well. As soon as winners are announced they will be shipping the prizes out. For now just keep in mind this is someone that is very well known and respected by many of you. IF the raffle happens you will know you can trust the prizes and that you will get them. I think I have a good name as well, but I feel it better to have 2 guarantees for you great peps.
Finally I want to say that anyone that wins gets to pick where the prize goes. IF you actually want to give the prize to someone else all you need to do is say who and what address.
Remember 3 things.
1. Lotteries tell us that although peps with more entries do have a higher percentage chance of winning, however many a time someone with just one entry has one.
2. The Maximum of 35 item is just that a maximum. You DO NOT need to send in 35 items. You can just send in one if you want.
3. 35 items might seem like a lot in some ways. But if you look at the maximum of wheat pennies, canadian pre-1960, marbles, nickels, and IH you will see that if you max these out you are sending in 24 items. The computer cost me around $600, VCR $75, Shells could sell for about $150, and the Metal Detector $325.
I of course would like to atleast leave 11 chances for those that want to max out to get a silver coin of some type to begin to rebuild my coin collection.
IF the raffle is approved and I announce it then it will happen no matter what. That means if I announce it then I am willing to give up the items even if it is a big flop. In other words if only one or 2 peps enter the drawing then I will get very little items, however the prizes will still be given out...PERIOD>
Thank you for reading this. I value your opinion and would very much appreciate if you reply here or PM me with your opinion. Also if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
REMEMBER..this isn't a guarantee yet. Still need to get Marc's approval and I need to be sure that I am going to do this. Right now I am 96% sure, but you can bet if I get permission and announce it that I will be 100% then.
OH and WOO HOO it might not be much to all of you, but I am PUMPED about getting my first silver quarter today. Only took me a year and a half LOL>
Thank you all,
Postalrevnant (Doug)
