I did think of eBay, after some thinking I figured that it probably doesn't have the same earning power as a raffle. I'll try to explain by example.

Let's let's pretend that we place the book on eBay, and it fetches the arbitary price of $500. That's $500 for TPF, minus any fees charged by eBay. There are plenty of people who want the book, but none of them are willing to pay more than $500 for it.

Now let's pretend that every dollar donated to TPF gives you a ticket to win the coveted book. Now someone can still donate $500 to TPF. However, even though that large donation has been made, others can continue to make donations, and still have a chance of winning. I suspect the number of people making donations of just a few dollars will be far greater than the top-sale price at auction.

The other big advantage is that a raffle makes it easier for local Perl Mongers groups to get involved. Let's say at the next Melb.PM meeting we raise $200 in raffle tickets. That can be made as one big donation to TPF (saving on things like currency conversion fees). If Melb.PM wins the raffle, we can then haul out the little tickets they sold to decide who gets it. None of this requires any sort of interaction with whatever the current "top bid" happens to be.

If we want to encourage competition (which is how auctions operate), then perhaps there can be a second prize (we've had lots of good suggestions) which goes to the individual or group that makes the largest donation. This is like the "every bidder pays" auction suggested above, except that every participant has a chance of winning the raffled prize (which I imagine will be a motiviation for many individuals and groups).

As always, I'm very happy to be swayed by counter-arguments, so please don't hesitate to make them.

Cheers,

Paul Fenwick
Perl Training Australia

In reply to eBay for The Perl Foundation? by pjf
in thread Raffle for The Perl Foundation? by pjf

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