Jump to content
Click Here To View The NEW DAILY DEALS FEED!

  • Brickpicker Raffle Fundraiser for a Great Cause!!

    Ed Mack

    By Ed Mack (edited)

    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

    • Like 12
    Go to blog articles

    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    Guest brickcrazyhouse

    Guest brickcrazyhouse

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, Armor said:

    Finally decided to get some tickets. I would like to know what bundle has the most tickets after its all over.

    anyone can know their odds. Just buy one ticket of each category you're interested in at the last minute and you will see how many ticket were sold.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Lordoflego
    19 minutes ago, heyitsme said:

    i was going to buy $100 worth, but rallyup kept wanting more and more personal information and so i didnt go through with it

    Come on man, school needs your help, it wasn't that much work even for my lazy butt

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Jeff Mack

    i was going to buy $100 worth, but rallyup kept wanting more and more personal information and so i didnt go through with it

    That makes no sense. It is normal billing information. Also how else do you think they get the information to send a winner their prizes. We can't send the sets to nowhere and think you will just get it.

    Also you can just donate via PayPal if the rest bothers you. Not sure what was so much.

    • Like 4
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Phil B

    Ed, don't forget the Dark Side of the Force ... it's called Procastination Keep hammering these messages at folks and more importantly, put up a "Only X days left" banner everywhere. I'm sure that will entice some ....

    $48k passed .... Just wanted to remind you all about my prediction from 3 weeks ago :). To celebrate my clearvoyance, I added one more ticket to my tally :)

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Phil B

    One thing struck me in the rallyup purchase, it comes with this templated, non-completed message:

    "For income tax purposes, it is important for us to state that you did not receive any goods or services in connection with these contributions. Your contribution is tax-deductible.{Name of Tax Exempt Org} is a non-profit corporation and is recognized as a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Service code 501©(3)."

    Ed or Jeff, is this donation/raffle ticket indeed a proper tax deductible donation for folks in the US?

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    heyitsme
    15 minutes ago, Jeff Mack said:

     

    That makes no sense. It is normal billing information. Also how else do you think they get the information to send a winner their prizes. We can't send the sets to nowhere and think you will just get it.

    Also you can just donate via PayPal if the rest bothers you. Not sure what was so much.

    i dont know who rallyup is or what they do with personal information...... i could have just paid for the tickets through paypal and then "if" i win, the sender of the prize, could then get a shipping address.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    thoroakenfelder
    20 minutes ago, Jeff Mack said:

     

    That makes no sense. It is normal billing information. Also how else do you think they get the information to send a winner their prizes. We can't send the sets to nowhere and think you will just get it.

    Also you can just donate via PayPal if the rest bothers you. Not sure what was so much.

    Not to mention credit card authorization usually requires address verification for security purposes.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Lordoflego
    24 minutes ago, Phil B said:

    $48k passed .... Just wanted to remind you all about my prediction from 3 weeks ago :). To celebrate my clearvoyance, I added one more ticket to my tally :)

    I didn't see your post from 3 weeks ago but I'm assuming you stated that it would reach $50k, or that last few days will be surprising, right? Well, I may just be watching you from now on and see how accurate you are when it comes to Lego :) 

    Edited by Lordoflego
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Phil B
    8 minutes ago, Lordoflego said:

    I didn't see your post from 3 weeks ago but I'm assuming you stated that it would reach $50k, or that last few days will be surprising, right? Well, I may just be watching you from now on and see how accurate you are when it comes to Lego :) 

    Hmmm .. I quoted the post in my post just now ... anyways, I said the slow start was all due to procrastination :)

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Jeff Mack
    One thing struck me in the rallyup purchase, it comes with this templated, non-completed message:

    "For income tax purposes, it is important for us to state that you did not receive any goods or services in connection with these contributions. Your contribution is tax-deductible.{Name of Tax Exempt Org} is a non-profit corporation and is recognized as a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Service code 501(3)."

    Ed or Jeff, is this donation/raffle ticket indeed a proper tax deductible donation for folks in the US?

    That is not their fault, probably mine for not seeing everything to update. Yes we have answered the question many times in this thread about the tax exemption and people have posted the EIN. It was also mentioned in the summary. This also never would have been possible if they weren't. It took days to get it approved while it was checked by them with the IRS.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Phil B
    6 minutes ago, Jeff Mack said:

    That is not their fault, probably mine for not seeing everything to update. Yes we have answered the question many times in this thread about the tax exemption and people have posted the EIN. It was also mentioned in the summary. This also never would have been possible if they weren't. It took days to get it approved while it was checked by them with the IRS.

    Sorry Jeff - this is one of the few threads here I haven't read front-to-back so I must have missed it. Reading back now.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    MathBuilder
    41 minutes ago, heyitsme said:

    i dont know who rallyup is or what they do with personal information...... i could have just paid for the tickets through paypal and then "if" i win, the sender of the prize, could then get a shipping address.

    You can paypal Ed and he will send you the ticket numbers, see previous posts here. Heck you can paypal me and tell me what to buy, I would buy them for you (wouldn't hurt to know the current ticket numbers for stuff :P)

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Lawpepperdine

    It is my understanding that any raffle purchase is not tax deductible.  A pure donation would be which is an option.  Probably has already been stated, just wanted to clarify based on Phil's post which said donation/raffle.

    Regardless of deductibility, this is an amazing cause, a great chance at fun prizes (for those going the raffle route), and an amazing opportunity to be part of the brickpicker grass-roots movement!  Dang, I must be watching too many presidential debates....

    • Like 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Phil B
    6 minutes ago, Lawpepperdine said:

    It is my understanding that any raffle purchase is not tax deductible.  A pure donation would be which is an option.  Probably has already been stated, just wanted to clarify based on Phil's post which said donation/raffle.

    Regardless of deductibility, this is an amazing cause, a great chance at fun prizes (for those going the raffle route), and an amazing opportunity to be part of the brickpicker grass-roots movement!  Dang, I must be watching too many presidential debates....

    Yes .. I was asking from a raffle perspective. I didn't expect it to be deductible, but then the text at the bottom of the purchase confirmation threw me off, hence the question. I would have validated it with my CPA anyways :)

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    dinner41
    2 hours ago, Jeff Mack said:

    That makes no sense. It is normal billing information. Also how else do you think they get the information to send a winner their prizes.

    It does, but they could also only actually ask the winners and not collect info from the other 99.9% of people. The info they wanted also turned me almost away (actually did twice before I  though: to hell with it, how else should I get my money to Ed - I did not read about direct paypal to him back then yet or would have done that). They should really make it easier for people to donate without giving all that information.

    One question I have: do you (Ed) have access to all that information? That would be kind of scary.

    Edited by dinner41
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    jbacunn
    4 hours ago, Roy vd M. said:

    So this being a Lego investment forum and all, I thought it might be a good idea to write a small post about which raffle tickets to purchase, with only a few hours to go before this set of opportunities becomes a retired product*. 

     

    Nice analysis. You convinced me to buy a couple more tickets. 

    • Like 2
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    heyitsme
    2 hours ago, dinner41 said:

    It does, but they could also only actually ask the winners and not collect info from the other 99.9% of people. The info they wanted also turned me almost away (actually did twice before I  though: to hell with it, how else should I get my money to Ed - I did not read about direct paypal to him back then yet or would have done that). They should really make it easier for people to donate without giving all that information.

    One question I have: do you (Ed) have access to all that information? That would be kind of scary.

    last year my bank locked my accounts and called me and asked if i was traveling around europe spending thousands of dollars at various stores.....of course i wasnt.....buts someone pretending to be me was.....so am i a bit gunshy about handing out my information when i feel its not exactly needed upfront...thankfully the bank didnt make me pay for the losses.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    • Popular Comment
    Jeff Mack
    • Popular Comment
    6 hours ago, dinner41 said:

    One question I have: do you (Ed) have access to all that information? That would be kind of scary.

    Personally I am taking major offense to this.  Ed and I do not have access to anyone's info. We have never asked for it here on Brickpicker and this is why we went with a professional third party service.  RallyUp is asking for billing information just like any online retailer out there.  Perhaps they need it to show the IRS at the end of the year who contributed or just like someone else stated, they have to ask that for billing fraud.  We don't have access to anyone's info other than sometimes a name (sometimes blank), email, date and contribution.  That is all.  I sure hope that those of you that are complaining about entering in billing info have never bought anything online.  I guess it's ok if you bought something on eBay and now that person has your mailing address, or I sure hope you don't buy anything on Amazon, Walmart, etc,etc,etc.  Your information is all already all over if you have.

    This fundraiser has been going on for over a month. You had plenty of time to research it, make a phone call, send us a PM and we would have gotten an answer for you.'

    I am going to create a special award called the Fundraiser Party Pooper Award.

    • Like 13
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    Ed Mack

    I just have to say that I really do appreciate all the support.  The kids appreciate all the support.  The teachers appreciate all the support.  I have been humbled by all of the support.  As for the "charitable" write off, the school is a legit 501c(3).  I don't know if it is tax deductible nor do I really give a crap.  I don't roll that way.  If I donate or enter a raffle, I could care less if it is a write off.  I doubt many of you care as well.  It's a great raffle, with kick butt prizes, write off or not.

    To a those of you who are questioning Jeff and I...don't ruin a good thing.  As for me "having all this info" and it being "scary,"...Give me a break and think about it before you post something inflammatory.  It's run by an independent organization.  I don't even have the breakdown of who bought what.  I figured that out by buying tickets.  If you don't want to donate, don't.  You don't have to come up with some paranoid BS as an excuse not to donate.  Sorry for my tone, I am tired of being politically correct.

    • Like 9
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites


    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

    ×



×
×
  • Create New...