Not sure I follow the mentality about being upset about paying for shipping.


If you purchase a single $5 ticket, or 20 of them, for say, that $1200 M90, exactly what do you have to be complaining about to have to pay shipping?

most surely --

quote:

Originally posted by Panasonic Fan:
Not sure I follow the mentality about being upset about paying for shipping.


If you purchase a single $5 ticket, or 20 of them, for say, that $1200 M90, exactly what do you have to be complaining about to have to pay shipping?

As usual everything I say is misconstrued, but what else is new.

Did I use the word "complain"? Sure, I don't think anyone would argue about paying for shipping on an M90 but I'm simply saying that nobody is going to "donate" something like an M90 without some kind of guarantee that they receive top dollar for it. Values on boxes like that are very tempermental and one never knows what one will bring in the world of Ebay. My suggestion was that we stick to something simple but desirable. Something that has a proven top value range that the owner won't be risking much. I'm using a Panny 5050 as an example. Even if you charged $7 per ticket for that and 30 people purchased a ticket. That's $210. Shipping (at the most if overseas) would be what... say $75? That leaves $135. S2GO gets $27 and that leaves the owner w/ $108. MORE than what they would have gotten on any ebay sale. So the owner makes out, S2GO makes out, and the winner has a decent boombox delivered for $7. It's nice to win something and not have to worry about other fees is all I am saying. Start small and see how it works.

Bash, nobody is making comments here to be taken personally (at least not intentionally).



There are logistics to work out, I just don't happen to agree with shipping being factored in to the collection costs, mainly because it's a variable that isn't known until after the drawing. We'd have to collect the agreed upon price for the box in question, plus the most expensive shipping possibility every time just to make sure that the shipping could get covered.



I think the KISS applies here: seller offers up box, value is agreed upon (and not disclosed), raffle ticket purchases ensue. When the value of the box is reached, the drawing is held. The only fee that gets collected in that case is $1 per ticket to cover Paypal costs.



Anything over and above goes to Paul as a site contribution. Or an even split between the site and towards shipping, with the understanding of all participants that it may not cover the entire cost of shipping: whatever remains is up to the winner to pay. If it did, anything that remained from the shipping "share" would be rolled into the next drawing for shipping.



What do you think of that?

quote:

Originally posted by Panasonic Fan:
Bash, nobody is making comments here to be taken personally (at least not intentionally).



There are logistics to work out, I just don't happen to agree with shipping being factored in to the collection costs, mainly because it's a variable that isn't known until after the drawing. We'd have to collect the agreed upon price for the box in question, plus the most expensive shipping possibility every time just to make sure that the shipping could get covered.



I think the KISS applies here: seller offers up box, value is agreed upon (and not disclosed), raffle ticket purchases ensue. When the value of the box is reached, the drawing is held. The only fee that gets collected in that case is $1 per ticket to cover Paypal costs.



Anything over and above goes to Paul as a site contribution. Or an even split between the site and towards shipping, with the understanding of all participants that it may not cover the entire cost of shipping: whatever remains is up to the winner to pay. If it did, anything that remained from the shipping "share" would be rolled into the next drawing for shipping.



What do you think of that?

I give up, it sounds like a plan. My concern with this shipping is just that the winner of a box from a $5-$10 raffle may not have $125-$175 at the time to cover shipping costs on an M90 from say...Australia. Know what I mean? I was just trying to think of a way that the winner "wins" for nothing more than the cost of the ticket. I guess the other question regarding the lottery of an "expensive grail" would be: What happens if the expected purchase price is not met. Will you need to refund all of the Paypal payments? The fees will be lost in that case already. Or are you only planning to have the ticket payments sent after tallying up the # of requested tickets?

p.s. I know nobody was being personal. I'm just being grumpy me.

PF, sounds like a good plan.

I personally think that if we raffle a highly collectable Box that it will draw enough attention to sell the tickets needed to cover the cost of the box, the site donation and the shipping pot. but that's just me

Not to sound like a snob but if it's anything smaller then say a Rising 20 20 or an M-70 I will probably only buy a ticket or two because I have enough small/medium boxes already and only 4 or 5 boxes that I intend on keeping for the long hail.

Now if it's something hard to carry I'm down for at least $100 worth a tickets because the risk of losing my $100 is much less important to me then the chance to own a box I may never be able to afford out right. Oh and if I win a M-90 I don't care where it's coming from (as long as it's packaged good) I'll pay the freight with a smile... even if I spent a $100 on tickets

but it would be even more delightful to get for the cost of the tickets

Either way it should be fun and this is turning more or less into a dispute as opposed to a discussion

Jus sayin

All of the input is appreciated. Smokin', the only difference between a discussion and a dispute is how one reacts to a difference of opinion. I think we're doing well overall at keeping it at a discussion.


This doesn't have to start tomorrow, so there is plenty of time for input and wrasslin' with ideas to get it right. Bash, I'm not sure what we would do if enough tickets weren't sold. I would much rather see people buying tickets than promising to buy tickets, since you always get some slackers who never pay up when the time comes. In some way, we'd have to come to an agreement to put them up until they hit the cost being asked. Whether one bought $5 or $100 worth, the same policy would have to apply to all who participate.


Perhaps Vladi's idea of only raffling off the big, grail type boxes will generate enough interest to ensure that we always get sufficient contributions. It would be great to see a larger audience participate in these than the regulars, who knows, maybe there is a lurker (or 100) who would be all over participating. Time will tell.



Keep the ideas coming.

All good ideas and it's great to see details hashed out in this manner.

An idea might be to put out a feeler or interest check before deciding if a box is acceptable for auction. We could take an interest poll for possible boxes people are making available for auction. If the poll indicates enough interest then we can schedule it for a raffle, if the interest is to light then that box would not be a candidate. I expect there are lots of boxes that may not be considered a Grail that would be acceptable for an auction. I'm sure this is also a moving target meaning depending on timing some boxes may have enough interest only for a while then fall out of favor.

quote:

the only difference between a discussion and a dispute is how one reacts to a difference of opinion

Your right and sorry if it came out wrong I don't really see anyone acting childish or turning this into an argument. It's all good (like I need to tell you LOL)

MB I agree a few polls may help this whole situation and I also think maybe we could get PF to move this post into the BBX chat area as it's not really a "for sale" thread and may get more input from peeps who aren't necessarily looking in the for sale section ? Maybe I'm wrong it has a load of views and 3 pages of replies.

God if I kept all my .02 I'd have enough loot to buy a grail box without the raffle LMAO

quote:

Originally posted by Panasonic Fan:
All of the input is appreciated...

This doesn't have to start tomorrow, so there is plenty of time for input and wrasslin' with ideas to get it right. Bash, I'm not sure what we would do if enough tickets weren't sold. I would much rather see people buying tickets than promising to buy tickets, since you always get some slackers who never pay up when the time comes. In some way, we'd have to come to an agreement to put them up until they hit the cost being asked. Whether one bought $5 or $100 worth, the same policy would have to apply to all who participate.

Perhaps Vladi's idea of only raffling off the big, grail type boxes will generate enough interest to ensure that we always get sufficient contributions. It would be great to see a larger audience participate in these than the regulars, who knows, maybe there is a lurker (or 100) who would be all over participating. Time will tell.

Keep the ideas coming.

This is a really great idea that has been in the air for some time...If we can pull it off it would be quite interesting and would certainly spark a new interest in the hobby for those who has been in it for awhile.

Now here is my 2c worth of it:

1. We need to create a separate folder on this forum dedicated to this Lottery idea if we really want to make it happen. It becomes difficult to dig it out...

2. To address the problem that Bash posted earlier about what to do when not enough tickets has been sold, I think all we need to do is to break each lottery into 3 steps: 1. "Commitment to Purchase n# of tickets" 2. "Actual Purchase of n#s of tickets and 3. "Pick a lottery winner". In step #1, moderators check on a given lottery day if they had enough commitments to start the lottery and only then tickets are allowed to be purchased. I suppose the "commitment" is a re-inforced "poll" idea that was discussed earlier, with added responsibility, since it would be visible to everyone if someone had "committed" to the lottery but lugging on the purchase...

3. Make "commitment" lists public on this forum, so everyone can see who is commiting to what - this would make it more interesting and less secretive.

4. I think we should only have one ticket denomination and everyone can buy a limited # of tickets. For example, $5/ticket with maximum of 5 tickets. This way we can ensure that less expensive but still desirable bboxes can participate and that the lottery is fair.

5. Allow more than one lottery at a time but set a limit to let say no more than 3. This will speed up the lottery pace and will again make it more interesting, and increase forum's traffic.

6. As for the shipping, I agree with Bash that it would be simpler to include a pre-set amount in the purchase price rather than dealing with it separetely. Perhaps it should be a just a basic shipment cost, something like $50 (given that everyone here knows how to pack boombox so it makes it wherever it need to be without being damaged) and winner will have an option to upgrade the shipping it at his expense or go with what's included.


Cheers!

I'm in. This sounds like a great idea.

I must say that I agree with somehow incorporating the cost of shipping with the tickets. I think even though the cost of the ticket would be marginally more it would encourage more people to participate knowing that the only thing they would have to do after winning would be to give the seller their address.
just my .02

I agree with much of what has already been said, but would add a suggestion:

Instead of just waiting until sufficient tickets have been sold (or at least pledged) to cover the cost of the box, and then holding the drawing at that point, let the lottery run a little longer (perhaps a week) beyond just covering the costs of the box and shipping, so that it becomes a form of fund-raising for S2G, also. Perhaps a deadline would work, regardless of volume of tickets sold (As long as at least the minimum were sold): maybe thirty days within which anyone who wants "in' must make a pledge, then another ten days after that within which they must pay up via PayPal. Unless AT LEAST the actual costs of the box plus shipping are met through pledges, the auction is cancelled (unless maybe the seller decides to accept less), and if the amount raised exceeds the cost (including shipping), the difference is donated to the site (or maybe split between the site and the seller according to some formula, to also encourage more sellers to put up more "grail" boxes???).

Allowing "over-sell" like this will also ensure that there is enough "in the kitty" to cover any unexpected things, like deadbeats who pledge and then don't/can't pay up, etc...

If this gets going, I'll put up a number of rare and "grail" boxes, including at least one Marantz PMS-7000, a few GF-999s, a GF-9000, a super-rare GF-7474, a few GF-9494s, GF-575s, etc... Heck, if I thought I could actually get an eBay-type price like $1500 for it, I'd even ship out an excellent M90 tomorrow! [Because that would let me pay for an audiophile-grade turntable I'm drooling over and trying to raise the cash for! ]

Yes, donate the extra to S2go. I think the seller will get enough just selling the thing, no?

Also, I think a very important point hasn't yet been made strongly enough, and that is the quality of packaging used to ship the items.

I think there should be a standard that S2go should set which all or most members agree is satisfactory.

I will of course suggest my packaging technique as more than adequate, but of course, there is more than one way to skin a cat!

Heres my suggestion for packaging.

BUMP BUMP !

Come on guys don't let this die

Let's work it out and get soemthing rollin