They pull it off by not calling it a raffle and giving everyone that enters, something. Even if its as simple as a digital photo that they email you, you paid for it. If everyone involved purchases something and then they randomly generate a number and give away a prize to one of those that purchased a product, is it still a raffle? I don't know the various laws but that's how I see it done daily on the few FB pages I am a member of.
This is pretty much completely not true. I am a member of at least 8 different softball pages and every single one of them calls it a raffle. Nobody gets free stuff if you lose. Nobody reports it because well they want cheap bats as much as the next person does. There is one girl on there who does 6-10 raffles a day every day. $300 a shot and nothing has happened to her PP account so far.. It's the same one it was 18 months ago.
I have been here for about a decade...this is obviously my 2nd handle
I remember when the open forum would have 80-100 people alone on it. This place has gone to about 1/3 of what it use to be.
Pipe down creative 10
I was so happy when they made that section thought I would live on there. Then came the smear campaign, And when I fought back, I was a jerk. Go figure. I really like good gloves and good values, not just repping Vinci.
I thought my approaching SBFs about selling on here would open some type of dialog, anything. But after three attempts to contact them with no response I gave up on them, they really need to be more responsive, even if they dont like the idea. To ignore input and ideas is just stupid. I really never tried to hide my selling on hear and I was never infracted till the rules were changed and then was hit after reading my PMs. People used to always ask me about product, if SBFs were smart they would ask me about it and try to work out something mutually beneficial. What would more sales hurt as long as we all benefited?
I would venture to say that if they changed the rules for you and allowed you to sell to everyone on here they would have to change for every one of the other companies on here thus making the new rules meaningless. The fact of the matter was there were a ton of Reps from numerous companies using this site to sell via PM, sometimes into the hundreds every month in just bat sales not even counting gloves or batting gloves or balls or whatever other accessories that were being pushed by reps and competitors. How do you stop it and where do you draw the line? There is no way to stop it but they did their best to curtail it.. You don't see McDonalds letting Burger King set up a mobile food truck in their parking lot why should SBF allow SIS Sports, ***, Elite, ****** and all those other places that used SBF like it was their own page to sell products. I know you were given some sort of answer because I was shown something a long time ago about your proposal and the response you were given. Everyone is so quick to blame the store for changing the rules but I know even after the rules were changed the vast majority of the reps on here were still selling via PM. Saying things like I can't get to SBF via my work computer here is my phone number call me is the very same as using the site to sell. So it I can't get on SBF at work but look me up on FB my name is so and so... Same as just using the sight to sell, people were still using this site to make contact with people.
The bottom line is softball players are getting older and younger guys aren't playing as much. When everyone wants to get something cheap nowadays where do the go. FB because that is where all their friends are. Sure you can get great deals on there but actually learning anything from most of the people on there doesn't happen much because they dont know much. They are there just cause they heard CHEAP PRICES or WIN a $300 bat or $10... The demise of this site if it happens is due the the players themselves, they are never happy, nothing is every cheap enough, the bats take took long to break in, the new bats break too fast.... In this day and age of instant gratification and everyone gets an award nobody wants to work for anything anymore they expect it to be handed to them. SBF is still the best place on the net to learn about things and yes you have to deal with smart asses and arrogance but I can guarandamtee every single one of you deals with the same kinds of things on the field among friends. Difference here everyone is a keyboard hero and bigger and badder than they are in real life.
At the end of the day this site is and can only be as good as it's members. If all the members do is whine and cry then that is the what the face of the place will be... The bat reviews section used to bring a lot of people to the site, hell thats how I got here and I bet 90% of the members found this place. People like Lord7 and morons like him thought it would be funny to post sarcastic unbelievable bat review and other followed. Other players who if they got twice as good as they were would still never be any better than a rec player giving bat reviews and claiming to be C and D tourney players have literally ruined the entire bat section. Anyone remember that moron who took BP in his basement with his new Miken bat and broke 2 windows in a matter of minutes yet claimed he was a D tourney player.
The members make or break this site just as the follow or break the rules of the site causing the site to be more strict with their rules. If people followed the rules they had set in place then about 1/2 of the new rules would never have had to been created.
End Rant/
