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  • 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
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    Jeff Mack
    2 hours ago, force392 said:

    So far, it looks like more takers than givers on the site.  Sad that people can't donate $10 to a school or as a way to say thanks for the site and effort put forth by you and Jeff.  

    My analysis is that we are far behind were I thought we would be.  We are not even at 1/2 a percent of our users.  I told Ed, "oh i think we will hit 500 supporters with no issue at all", I guess I was wrong.  I really thought this would end over a thousand people but it will be interesting to see if we can get 300.  I am open to suggestions on what more we can do to get people involved in this.   Maybe it's time that the site changes the way things have been done.  It's amazing to see people who just signed up 3 days ago offer support and people that have been members for years still haven't shown up.  $10 for a few years worth of what could have been money made or money saved is a good deal in my book.

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    redjersey
    3 hours ago, force392 said:

    So far, it looks like more takers than givers on the site.  Sad that people can't donate $10 to a school or as a way to say thanks for the site and effort put forth by you and Jeff.  

    It really beggars belief. I rarely post but I've visited this site almost daily since I came across it because it's an outstanding resource for the Lego collector/enthusiast/investor. That's due to the hard work and enthusiasm of its founders, who take nothing for the services they provide. Now that they've asked for our help and support, it's to buy tickets in a raffle where we still stand to gain if we're lucky enough to win! Come on guys, please show your for appreciation for Ed and Jeff's unstinting work and support a very good cause at the same time.

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    boxofcorey

    So far, it looks like more takers than givers on the site.  Sad that people can't donate $10 to a school or as a way to say thanks for the site and effort put forth by you and Jeff.  

    My analysis is that we are far behind were I thought we would be.  We are not even at 1/2 a percent of our users.  I told Ed, "oh i think we will hit 500 supporters with no issue at all", I guess I was wrong.  I really thought this would end over a thousand people but it will be interesting to see if we can get 300.  I am open to suggestions on what more we can do to get people involved in this.   Maybe it's time that the site changes the way things have been done.  It's amazing to see people who just signed up 3 days ago offer support and people that have been members for years still haven't shown up.  $10 for a few years worth of what could have been money made or money saved is a good deal in my book.

    I know you would never say so, but does this really surprise you? There is an incredible group of individuals here... but there's also a very large majority here that do not appreciate what you two are doing for this community.

    Maybe it's time for premium data or simply membership fees to help you guys out. Anyway, back to lurking. Good luck.

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    Phil B
    13 minutes ago, boxofcorey said:

    I know you would never say so, but does this really surprise you? There is an incredible group of individuals here... but there's also a very large majority here that do not appreciate what you two are doing for this community.

    Maybe it's time for premium data or simply membership fees to help you guys out. Anyway, back to lurking. Good luck.

    Or maybe just have every link on the site go to a banner page that promotes the raffle, which only goes away when you buy tickets :) (or if you close it, but then it pops up again at the next link) .... that is, if you're willing to lose a few members over this :)

    That thought raises another question - out of the ~50,000 members, how many are active - as in, have logged in in the past few weeks? Perhaps a large majority registers for the free membership to get multiple price-guide data points, but never go any further .....

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    boxofcorey

    I know you would never say so, but does this really surprise you? There is an incredible group of individuals here... but there's also a very large majority here that do not appreciate what you two are doing for this community.

    Maybe it's time for premium data or simply membership fees to help you guys out. Anyway, back to lurking. Good luck.

    Or maybe just have every link on the site go to a banner page that promotes the raffle, which only goes away when you buy tickets (or if you close it, but then it pops up again at the next link) .... that is, if you're willing to lose a few members over this

    That thought raises another question - out of the ~50,000 members, how many are active - as in, have logged in in the past few weeks? Perhaps a large majority registers for the free membership to get multiple price-guide data points, but never go any further .....

    I can almost guarantee exposure and visibility are not the issues with this raffle. I'd bet the sheer number of views is astronomical higher than the amount of people participating.

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    Ed Mack
    40 minutes ago, Phil B said:

    Or maybe just have every link on the site go to a banner page that promotes the raffle, which only goes away when you buy tickets :) (or if you close it, but then it pops up again at the next link) .... that is, if you're willing to lose a few members over this :)

    That thought raises another question - out of the ~50,000 members, how many are active - as in, have logged in in the past few weeks? Perhaps a large majority registers for the free membership to get multiple price-guide data points, but never go any further .....

    LOL...More than you think.  Tens of thousands.

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    Ed Mack
    46 minutes ago, areyounormal said:

    I think the Mystery Box was a great idea - made me curious enough to purchase another ticket!

    The Mystery Box could be a big winner, if people participate.  The more they participate, the bigger the prize and the more generous I become.  It's as simple as that.

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    Ed Mack
    53 minutes ago, KShine said:

    This is a great cause, but unfortunately it is all too common a problem (one that doesn't seem to have any permanent solution).

    Yep...Way too common.  It's one battle at a time.  One school at a time.  Not all survive.  I am trying to do my part to save one.  

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    Ed Mack

    Got my time tickets purchased. Will hopefully get some more before the end of the month.

    Thanks. There is a DEFCON 1 meeting at the school next week and I want to be able to pump the people up. Keep it coming! As this number gets bigger, so will the Mystery Box.

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    comicblast

    Made my contribution under "comicblast" :D

    I, for one, have greatly benefitted from being a part of this community over the last several years and am grateful to the Macks for all of the time and effort they have invested in creating the BP community and the BC market. Part of me is also disappointed with the lackluster response of members, and I honestly expected this to have a bare minimum of 500 backers at this point.

    If I (an unemployed teenager who sells a little here and there) can sacrifice a little for the ONLY TIME EVER that the Macks have asked for something in return, surely more of you could make a donation or enter the raffle too!!

    The return I have received from LEGO investing, reselling, and participating in the community far outweighs anything I have given back to the community (through reviews, articles, posts, deals, etc.), but when I have the time and the means, I try to do my part, and encourage ALL of you to also make a contribution to a worthy cause.

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    Ed Mack

    Made my contribution under "comicblast"

    I, for one, have greatly benefitted from being a part of this community over the last several years and am grateful to the Macks for all of the time and effort they have invested in creating the BP community and the BC market. Part of me is also disappointed with the lackluster response of members, and I honestly expected this to have a bare minimum of 500 backers at this point.

    If I (an unemployed teenager who sells a little here and there) can sacrifice a little for the ONLY TIME EVER that the Macks have asked for something in return, surely more of you could make a donation or enter the raffle too!!

    The financial return I have received from LEGO investing and reselling far outweighs anything I have given back to the community (through reviews, articles, posts, deals, etc.), but when I have the time and the means, I try to do my part, and encourage ALL of you to also make a contribution to a worthy cause.

    For a teenager....you get it. You are far beyond your years. Thanks for the kind words.
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    thoroakenfelder

    You know, What LEGO can you get for $10? a Microfighter, Nexo Knights starter, 2.5 CMF, 2 Mixels, 2.5 polybags, a small city set, 2 very small city sets, basically, nothing that you really want anyway. But if we could all, every user, buy a single ticket, what a change we could make for the cost of something small that would make no impact upon our inventory/collection/hoard. Ed and Jeff's raffle is just an incentive. I mean, for $10/$25/$50, you could win something worth hundreds of dollars.

    Ed and Jeff are generous with their time and knowledge. They have created this active forum for fans, and investors to intermingle. Isn't this site worth at least $10? Isn't the knowledge shared here, the opportunities to profit, worth at least the cost of a small Pizza?

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    Guest brickcrazyhouse

    Guest brickcrazyhouse

    Posted

    There's a mystery box for F's sake. Wait I just got tickets for the box.  Go for the other options forget about the mystery box

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    Lordoflego

    I think all those posts will convince only few to participate, rest r just cheap, greedy Scrooges.....

    sorry, my car broke down last week (transmission, $2000-$3000) and I'm getting it back/paying mechanic this Friday, but I still managed to be a part of this raffle/fundraiser.....that unexpected car issue could really be my excuse, well....it's not.

    now.....what's ur excuse? 

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    jbacunn

    Just got a handfull of tickets.  Would have gotten some sooner, but coming off the heels of Christmas spending, was delayed.  Good luck next week at the meeting!

    I think the Christmas timing could be part of the problem. People are tapped out financially and or distracted by the million things going this time of year. Hopefully as things settle down over the next couple of weeks more people will pay attention and contribute. I'll buy a few more before the month is over. Honestly it shouldn't be necessary to offer prizes. If the Macks' need our help we should be there no questions asked. I have made thousands of dollars using the information on this site so giving back $50-60 is nothing. Any of the long time members that haven't contributed yet need to think about this because I am a small timer compared to many.

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