More donations through lottery

At which price would you buy a lottery ticket to fund preorders. Please select each price, at which

  • For 0.99 Euro / Dollar

    Votes: 6 27.3%
  • For 1.99 Euro / Dollar

    Votes: 7 31.8%
  • For 4.99 Euro / Dollar

    Votes: 6 27.3%
  • For 9.99 Euro / Dollar

    Votes: 9 40.9%
  • For 19.99 Euro / Dollar

    Votes: 4 18.2%
  • For 29.99 Euro / Dollar

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I would not buy one (please post a reason)

    Votes: 7 31.8%

  • Total voters
    22

rohezal

Advanced Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2009
Messages
1,712
Hi,

I don't like lotteries, they are just a tax on stupidity (but at least in Germany only the state is allowed to do lotteries and gives the money to universities and theaters (the one with actors not movies)). But anyway, maybe more people would donate if there is some kind of lottery.

Here are some calculations:

costs of prizes:

1 ghz  = 300 euro

1 cc = 100 euro

1 tv out cable  + carry case = 30 euro

with shipping etc it is around 500 euro

income from lottery with 30 euro (less people)

30 euro * 100 pepole = 3000 euro

3000 - 19% taxes = 2400 euro

2400 - cost of prizes = 1900

funds 8 Pandoras

or 19 "200 euro upgrade" pandoras

or 38 "250 euro ugrade" pandoras

 

income from lottery with 10 euro (more people)

10 euro * 1000 people = 10000 euro

10000 - 19% taxes = 8000 euro

8000 - cost of prizes = 7500

funds 25 Pandoars

or 75 "200 euro upgrade" pandoras

or 150 "250 euro ugrade" pandoras

Everyone who donates and wishes to do so, gets a number. After one Month 3 numbers are randomly choosen. First Prize: A 1Ghz Pandora, Second Prize Rebirth Pandora or Classic Pandora (what is around), third Prize *EDIT* a Dragonbox voucher (between 30-50€ depends on the ticket price).
 

I would suggest a minimum donation at 9.99€ to get a number. Not sure what the law says about this, maybe somebody outside Germany must host this.
 
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In the UK lotteries are very strictly governed, but not so raffles maybe it's the same in Germany?

I do like the idea though, funds at my end are very restricted at the moment but even I could find a few quid to chuck on a raffle ticket or 2.
 
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Maybe a page on Dragonbox could be developed specifically to sell raffle tickets, e.g. after purchasing you are emailed your numbers.
 
Some numbers (i love calculations ;) ):

costs of prizes:

1 ghz  = 300 euro

1 cc = 100 euro

1 tv out cable  + carry case = 30 euro

with shipping etc it is around 500 euro

income from lottery with 30 euro (less people)

30 euro * 100 pepole = 3000 euro

3000 - 19% taxes = 2400 euro

2400 - cost of prizes = 1900

funds 8 Pandoras

 

income from lottery with 10 euro (more people)

10 euro * 1000 people = 10000 euro

10000 - 19% taxes = 8000 euro

8000 - cost of prizes = 7500

funds 25 Pandoars

or 75 "200 euro upgrade" pandoras

or 150 "250 euro ugrade" pandoras

cheaper and a lot of people is the better choice i think. 9.99 euro or 9.99 dollar (nice looking prices are important) is the way i recommend. maybe add a disclaimer: the lottery needs 100 people to start or it is canceled and the people will get their money back. but i think for 9.99 euro a lot of people will participate if they can win a ghz pandora.

The taxes in Germany are quite high I think it would be better if link or some else trustworthy would host it.

Send an email to all people who ordered and preordered a Pandora about he charity lottery to collect money for the preorders. Since ED sold about 5000 Pandoras he should have a lot of emails to spam.

Let people just buy 1 ticket per person, it would be wrong to sell the tickets to some preorder guy who hopes to get finally a pandora and buys 10 tickets and still doesnt win. Lotteries are evil but in this case mybe ok. Like a christmas lottery for an orphan home ;) .
 
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I like this idea...but at one time Lottery maybe around Xmas time..and if it was for me i would choise a 19.99 € price tag
 
There is a break even Point it think. I forgot the paypal fees last time, hopefully a lot of german people will participate so it won't cost money.

If we sell 99 Cent tickets almost everybody will participate. This would be around 5000-6000 euro income.

If we sell them for 9.99 Euro we will have far less people, maybe 1000 at best.

If we sell it for 19.99 euro... not sure. We need market research for this. Or make a poll in this board to see how would work.

Edit: added poll and voted to I would not buy a ticket. But I would donate the price of a ticket when the poll starts, I don't like gambling.
 
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Could be nice at no more than 10$. Also all prices should be useful to even non-Pandora owners. A TV-out cable is going pretty useless to those who don't have the console but are hoping to win one. A DragonBox gift certificate might be more appropriate.
 
webOSNation, a webOS (HP mobile operating system) forum has done something similar on a couple of occasions and were VERY successful in drumming up donations to a charity. Despite fewer users/customers here, I don't see this being any less effective if the ticket price was deemed fair. You could even drum up business from other forums.

I have to say that I don't like the XX.99 value though. A straight XX.00 seems much more rounded. The odd 0.01 is pretty useless anyway, so why not just round up? Those extra 00.01s  will help pay for PayPal/whatever fees ;) :p

Once tickets are purchased, include username and ticket number in a special thread and make the end-draw visible (eg YouTube vid or something). That way people can see that there is no cheating or scamming. Make everything as transparent and free from flaws as possible.
 
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I have to say that I don't like the XX.99 value though.
Same here but 0.99$ magic works on most people. "I would never pay 10$... oh it is just 9.99$, I will take it".
 
Yeah, I am aware of that thread and the psychology of shopping, but this isn't shopping and is a donation/prize raffle - I suspect the psychology is very different.
 
I dare to think, that the audience in these forums is too intelligent for market tricks like this to have any effect.
 
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