I’m sure they have an account for you anyway. Look up shadow profiles.
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Stuff like this is so gross. Scamming kids is bad but through something like pokemon is just plain didgusting tbh.
Not as old as Gary lol but never even had an Instagram account O.o or really connected to Social Media in general. Too much trash I don’t have time to deal with in my life :X
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Lol, so the raffler nets $500 for nothing and can just do the same raffle again … RIP kids
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Instagram is such a cumbersome app to use for collections. I don’t understand why more people didn’t get on the Snupps bandwagon when all the YouTubers were getting paid to advertise it last year. I love using it for my collection, but finding genuine collectors is pretty hard.
So… when does that raffle for the Pikachu Illustrator card start? 
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Raffles aren’t only in Pokemon - its rampant for sports collectors as well / serious ones too
There’s $10,000 Jordan rookies being raffled all of the time on facebook - no kids / all adults - legit groups
A large segment of the sports community is actually kind of centered around raffle groups / case breaks - to the point where the company that makes the card has now started authorizing and has created application forms for people that want to raffle their product
I think maybe since a lot of the pokemon raffles are being done by perhaps kids with a lack of professionalism, its given a bad name to the idea
I’m pretty neutral to it, don’t support it, not against it - but can say a lot of people love it
I thought Instagram was just to follow Hot Models, have I been using it wrong this whole time? 
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I don’t have anything against IG as it serves a place to sell to not have to pay fee bays 10% ridiculous fees! But the raffles I feel have affected a lot of box prices. For instance these guys can go on eBay all day and buy base boxes at 2.6k just sitting there and net $400 profit from raffling them for 3k. People who don’t raffle can’t do that. So all the boxes are bought up by the raffles are higher prices than normal creating a false price climb. I mean it’s crazy to think that those rafflers literally ALWAYS have a way to make money and they can make however much they want cause they can buy anything at or above market and still make money. Ridiculous lol
And another thing…you don’t want to get scammed then have a brain and know how to protect yourself. As long as you pay thru goods and services your protected no matter what platform you buy on. There are plently of good legit people on IG as well.
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dont see any issues if they are legit. in this world of buyers have all the power this is a great way for legit sellers to take little risk. if i used insta and had a decent following i would do it.
Do continue…
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Yes, creating raffles inflates pricing because everyones down to pay a smaller amount for the chance at winning an expensive card and this allows rafflers to get top dollar over current market value. That said, I’ve won plenty of cool stuff from raffles before. I dont have a clue if it harms the pokemon hobby or if the raffles are illegitimate or not but I dont think that all raffles are bad. The raffle/lottery/drawing format has existed for hundreds of years and when its legitimate, it can be a lot of fun. That said, since 2009 the gambling commission has tightened up on rogue raffles/lotteries so technically if you dislike them, you can report them and have their platforms shut down. This is why all raffling platforms for expensive watches and other collectables on reddit are private communities so children and rif-raff can’t be bitter if they lose and compromise the raffles for everyone else.
The real problem with inflated prices is that it makes otherwise affordable cards less affordable/accessible for some collectors; and the risk of creating bubbles.
I sympathise with your post though, gambling doesn’t have to be inherently bad, just like the lottery a lot of money goes to charity, the problems start where regulation ends though - kids gambling, risk of scams, can damage the hobby for a lot of people who become alienated by it too. Its also a shame that reporting them doesn’t do much either as I’ve found.
Regulation is a start, although that’s a challenge in itself, some of the biggest hosts for raffles are known scammers. Private raffles and such are definitely the best option, where a group of people familiar with one another can safely gamble, keeping it out of public view, of course I don’t see that happening anytime soon when so many of these people are as money hungry as they are.
Definitely a topic in need of thorough discussion though, don’t support it myself but some discourse may lead to an effective solution.
All raffles aren’t bad. Your local church association raffling off a bike or Sister Jo Ann’s quilt is fine. The issue is when it crosses into private enterprise doing it illegally and without proper oversight.
Here in MA, you are only allowed to host a raffle if you have two years as a registered nonprofit. The law explicitly states that for-profit entities and individuals are barred from hosting a raffle. In addition, the law requires that all funds raised from a raffle must be used for educational, charitable, or religious purposes.
In legal gambling, there are heavy constraints on how much casinos can take in and pay out, in addition to laws regulating their existence. You can look up the rates for which a state’s casinos pay out (usually 90-95% of money put into slots, and 96-99% of money put into “skill” games). The function this serves is to make sure that people actually win in casinos.
However, when CharizardBaller69 on instagram holds a raffle, there’s nothing to stop him from simply pocketing the money and giving nobody a prize. He requires all payments to be though F&F, and decides the method for drawing himself. It’s very easy to rig a drawing, even if it’s allegedly “live” and uses an RNG software. This isn’t even mentioning the fact that most of the entrants are kids betting on a chance to win an item they could never afford. The method is so rigged towards the “seller” it’s basically just people giving you their money in exchange for nothing.
Reiterating what should be clear, but E4 considers raffles as fitting under our “unscrupulous activity” rule just like shill bidding. If you do them, we’ll ban you.
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“If you do them, we’ll ban you.” If we HOST them, or if we participate/ buy a raffle spot?
Sorry if this has been addressed already, but do these users cancel the raffle if all the designated spots aren’t filled? (thereby not reaching their target “sale” price)
I’d guess the answer is yes and that is my main grievance with the whole phenomenon.
On another note, if my school or a local function raffled off a base set box in my town for $1 a ticket with a potential 3000 or so tickets I would buy many spots.
Then again the funds earned by such a raffle would most likely go toward a more philanthropic cause than an instagrammer’s pocket.
Host them. You’re free to waste your money if you like.
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right now buyers have all the power. if a buyer opens a case on ebay odds are they will side with the buyer we all know it and we all dont like it so doing this to sell ur items takes away that power from the buyer and puts it in the seller. f+f means no case on paypal then 36 differnet buyers lowers the odds of bank charge backs too even if one does it its not the end of the world and the odds of 36 doing bank charge backs is just not going to happen. nothing wrong with f+f and nothing wrong with LEGIT sellers selling items this way. just need to be very carefull who you do it with and only do it with trusted people for example if say gradedgroudon was to do a raffle like this i would trust its legit.