Would a thread based "Cigar Raffle" work in principle?

[99call]

The principle would be, someone would start a thread like "Your best cigar of 2006 Raffle"  or whatever the theme is to be. 

It would have a week long running cycle, and would be timed out by the thread creator at a designated GMT point.  

Posters, would upload a picture of their cigar from 2006 (which would act as their raffle ticket). Their post number would act as the number.  i.e. the 5th post would be "ticket number 5". 

Whoever they turned out to be, all entrants would post their cigars to the lucky ticket winner, and work out addresses etc through PMs. 

What do members think? has this been done before?  Are there any obvious pitfalls?

[dominattorney]

Shipping pitfall seems to be the most burdensome.  would be better if all could be shipped at once, but obviously that's untenable.  Only way I could see it working is if Rob set it up and all the losers venmod him a certain amount of money, that would then be put toward buying cigars, and shipped to the winner.  That would obviously take his consent, and probably a lot of work. 

[Puros Y Vino]

So.  The "winner" would win all of the cigars posted in the raffle?  Scoring could be done with likes etc but IMO that opens things up to collusion. Depending on how many sticks are at play, it would be enticing for some to band together.  Given the number of active members here, that may not be too likely but I see this as a flawed way to run this.  You could do something along the lines of a Powerball, each cigar posted gets a # assigned and when the actual lottery draw is made, winner takes all.  The only drawback is how many are willing to stick 1 or 2 cigars in the mail to a possible overseas address? This kinda thing works better in person or within the same country. 

With all this said, Rob would need to give his blessing. Just because I'm a mod here and I chimed in, this is strictly my opinion and not an endorsement of the idea. 

[99call]

23 minutes ago, dominattorney said:

Shipping pitfall seems to be the most burdensome.  would be better if all could be shipped at once, but obviously that's untenable.  Only way I could see it working is if Rob set it up and all the losers venmod him a certain amount of money, that would then be put toward buying cigars, and shipped to the winner.  That would obviously take his consent, and probably a lot of work. 

100% wouldn't want the idea to burden the FOH team with a seconds extra work. The Idea was strictly to member ran, and obviously need consent from FOH.   Just an idea really, could be fun

[99call]

21 minutes ago, bundwallah said:

So.  The "winner" would win all of the cigars posted in the raffle?  Scoring could be done with likes etc but IMO that opens things up to collusion. Depending on how many sticks are at play, it would be enticing for some to band together.  Given the number of active members here, that may not be too likely but I see this as a flawed way to run this.  You could do something along the lines of a Powerball, each cigar posted gets a # assigned and when the actual lottery draw is made, winner takes all.  The only drawback is how many are willing to stick 1 or 2 cigars in the mail to a possible overseas address? This kinda thing works better in person or within the same country. 

With all this said, Rob would need to give his blessing. Just because I'm a mod here and I chimed in, this is strictly my opinion and not an endorsement of the idea. 

Yes, the winner would win all.

Great points raised.  It would be really sad if some felt the need to try and rig it.  but hey I think we all know wonderful cigars can make scoundrels of us all. 

On the basis that any given cigar may cost £10-20, and insured shipping an individual cigar would be around £10.   To me the idea of winning 40-50 wonderful cigars for £20-30, would be well worth it, and fun.    Just thinking out loud really, I'm surprised something similar hasn't been done before.

[El Presidente]

1 hour ago, 99call said:

100% wouldn't want the idea to burden the FOH team with a seconds extra work. The Idea was strictly to member ran, and obviously need consent from FOH.   Just an idea really, could be fun

You have my permission.....as long as there is no additional burden to the team here 

[99call]

36 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

You have my permission.....as long as there is no additional burden to the team here 

 Haha,  Defo don't want to start a Forum Frankenstein just yet,

But thats great Rob, thanks for the potential blessing.., and yep, there was always going to be a zero tollerence policy, on any potential of hassle created for the FOH team. 

Will wait to see what the common consensus is that comes in. 

[MrGlass]

Reddit tried something similar to this called "Millionaire Makers".  The premise was that people would post in a thread, then once the thread was closed, a random post would be selected as the winner, and everyone that entered would transfer the winner $1.  So like a lottery, but working on an honesty system that people would only pay after the fact.  They've had 30 draws over the last two years, and despite upwards of 30,000 people entering, the winner has typically received around $2k.

[ElJavi76]

7 hours ago, bundwallah said:

The only drawback is how many are willing to stick 1 or 2 cigars in the mail to a possible overseas address? This kinda thing works better in person or within the same country. 

With this in mind we can set up regionals... Not the HSA kind. LOL More like, Eastern, Central, Western USA. This way guys shipping up and down East Coast for example won't get hit with more than $5 bux for shipping. For a few cigar I think you can send the cheapest snail mail possible. Canada can do their thing and guys on other side of pond can do the same. Think of the shipping fee if you lose as your entry fee. 

I'm suggesting this cause I've shipped to Florida for $4.80 but similar package to California for for $12.90. You give folks the flexibility of joining as many regionals as they want knowing full well the longer the distance, the more they'll pay in shipping/entry fees. 

[99call]

8 hours ago, MrGlass said:

Reddit tried something similar to this called "Millionaire Makers".  The premise was that people would post in a thread, then once the thread was closed, a random post would be selected as the winner, and everyone that entered would transfer the winner $1.  So like a lottery, but working on an honesty system that people would only pay after the fact.  They've had 30 draws over the last two years, and despite upwards of 30,000 people entering, the winner has typically received around $2k.

Yep, it's a shame in this day and age, that there are so many people with poor moral fibre, but I would hope the cigar community would set a much better standard.

Besides there could be a "call-out' section at the end of the thread, to bar those who refuse to post their cigars from entering again, or something to this effect

[99call]

7 hours ago, ElJavi76 said:

With this in mind we can set up regionals... Not the HSA kind. LOL More like, Eastern, Central, Western USA. This way guys shipping up and down East Coast for example won't get hit with more than $5 bux for shipping. For a few cigar I think you can send the cheapest snail mail possible. Canada can do their thing and guys on other side of pond can do the same. Think of the shipping fee if you lose as your entry fee. 

I'm suggesting this cause I've shipped to Florida for $4.80 but similar package to California for for $12.90. You give folks the flexibility of joining as many regionals as they want knowing full well the longer the distance, the more they'll pay in shipping/entry fees. 

Yep I could agree a regional system may be more "approachable" for people who don't like paying for shipping.  That said, it would be so much more exciting to have an international draw, and a sea of singles all flying their way to the lucky winner.  Maybe do a number of regionals, until the format works, then do a special world draw

[zeedubbya]

13 hours ago, 99call said:

Yes, the winner would win all.

Great points raised.  It would be really sad if some felt the need to try and rig it.  but hey I think we all know wonderful cigars can make scoundrels of us all. 

On the basis that any given cigar may cost £10-20, and insured shipping an individual cigar would be around £10.   To me the idea of winning 40-50 wonderful cigars for £20-30, would be well worth it, and fun.    Just thinking out loud really, I'm surprised something similar hasn't been done before.

I’ve seen something similar done many times with a lottery “bust” in which the US Powerball Lottery red ball number is used for a drawing.  Each entrant picks a number from 1-26 (the amount of red balls in the US Powerball) and agrees they will put up a premium cigar 5er as an entry fee.  First come, first shot at picking a number.  All entries are posted in the thread so everyone can see who’s in and what number they picked.  Once filled to 26 spots it runs.  Person with number closest to the drawn Powerball number wins 11 5ers, second and third closest wins 6 5ers.  Note there’s only 23 5ers available because it’s assumed 3 winners would keep their own 5ers. Winner picks 11 people and sends them his/her address, 2nd and 3rd pick 6 people each to have send them a 5er each.  Winner ends up with 55 cigars, 2nd and 3rd with 30 each (assuming everyone sends their 5ers....)   

This could feasibly be done with singles as well—I just think it’s not as cost effective to ship a single cigar, and that’s why 5ers are used. 

As a post script, I kind of like that FOH doesn’t have things like this going all over the forum, but maybe running something like this might be fun for members...

[99call]

52 minutes ago, zeedubbya said:

I’ve seen something similar done many times with a lottery “bust” in which the US Powerball Lottery red ball number is used for a drawing.  Each entrant picks a number from 1-26 (the amount of red balls in the US Powerball) and agrees they will put up a premium cigar 5er as an entry fee.  First come, first shot at picking a number.  All entries are posted in the thread so everyone can see who’s in and what number they picked.  Once filled to 26 spots it runs.  Person with number closest to the drawn Powerball number wins 11 5ers, second and third closest wins 6 5ers.  Note there’s only 23 5ers available because it’s assumed 3 winners would keep their own 5ers. Winner picks 11 people and sends them his/her address, 2nd and 3rd pick 6 people each to have send them a 5er each.  Winner ends up with 55 cigars, 2nd and 3rd with 30 each (assuming everyone sends their 5ers....)   

This could feasibly be done with singles as well—I just think it’s not as cost effective to ship a single cigar, and that’s why 5ers are used. 

As a post script, I kind of like that FOH doesn’t have things like this going all over the forum, but maybe running something like this might be fun for members...

HHhhhm never really a fan of tiered "winning".  I remember entering a pool tournament on an American base once whilst working away. it was a $20 dollar entry fee.   I think there was something like 60 entrants, and I came 2nd.  and won something like $25 back!???, because the top 50 all have to be percentage 'winners'.    Never experienced this before or after.   I know internet poker seems to have this sort of structure, but it sounds unecesarily complicated to me. 

I agree with bumping it up to a 5er per ticket, to make shipping not seem so expensive, but would want to keep the 'winner takes all' structure.