Since Fandom equally does little for money, and yet prone to collecting, we decided to make it ‘cheap’ as it were. By making it a penny raffle, people could choose how much they really wanted it but without breaking the bank. Curious or not as serious people may bid less, those who desire it the most will bid more. As it has been clearly shown. I also figured in the sense of it being so cheap to start that many would just drop a penny, and we make a profit in sheer number, but clearly not (as seen below). It also being a raffle, as opposed to being an actual auction, gave some semblance of equality regardless of it being there or not. Those who bid less than $1 has less probability of winning but the chance is still there. People like to take a gamble even if the odds are not in their favor. Otherwise there would be less sweepstakes and scratch-offs in our lives.
That being said, Jarone and I spread it both offline and online for as much reach as we could. I made a tumblr blog just for it to host the post and reblogged from my personal as opposed to just making the post from my blog itself. I am curious if that had much effect on our results as well. I also made a Facebook post (made public for all) off my personal as opposed to making a group on it, which Jarone shared. Below is the results:
Facebook:
5 Shares:
- 2 by Kar
- 1 by Jarone
- 1 by Cherissa (friend of Kar)
- 1 by Jason (another friend of Kar’s)
5 Likes:
- 1 by Cherissa (see above)
- 1 by William (Kar’s brother)
- 1 by Kellee (Fellow ITPer)
- 1 by Quin (Fellow ITPer)
- 1 by Tiffanie (Kar’s friend)
Tumblr:
1 Like:
- 1 of Kar’s followers
19 Reblogs:
- 4 from the RP community
- 7 from personal blog followers
- 6 from Kar’s boosting
- 2 from follower of person boosting
Offline:
- 5 fliers placed among the busiest places at ITP
Bids:
- Jess (friend of Kar’s, through tumblr): $00.01
- Elias (non-follower on tumblr): $10.00
- Jenny (ITPer): $03.00
As you can see, tumblr was the largest place it picked up, and where 2/3rds of the bids (such as they are). I suspect because neither Jarone or myself are in the Megaman fandom, we did not get as much as a reach as let’s say Star Wars. We had no idea who the big name fans or members in general to boost. A part of me wants to replicate this raffle with something like a Star Wars Pop! Vinyl or other object from a more familiar fandom to see the results. We did make back almost our entire $20, but there was little engagement outside of sharing, and our sample size a little too small to feel like it’s viable, but with just the weekend to work, I suppose it could be a lot worse.