Trading Guilds and Raffles - How "fair" are they and how much is too much?

RizaHawkeye · September 2016

So I have a couple of questions about how "fair" raffles are and how much is too much to pay.

So I've been playing the game for a long time and I've never won a guild raffle, to my knowledge (I would hope someone would tell me). For the last few months, I've belonged to two large trading guilds. I have no complaints with the guilds or services they provide, except when it comes to raffles.I try to buy tickets every week, mostly because I want to support the guild. Also, one of my guilds keep losing its great kiosk location so I've been trying to give extra support. But in this time, I've never won a raffle and I've seen at least one player win three times.

To give you an idea how much I'm paying in raffles, here's a list of my sales and amount spent on raffle entries for the last three weeks (numbers are based on weekly listed items that sold):

This week:
Sales: 33,430 gold
Raffle Tickets: 14,000 gold

Week of 09/04
Sales: 32,000
Raffle Tickets: 10,000 gold

Week of 8/28
Sales: 46,970 gold
Raffle Tickets: 7,500 gold

As you can see, I'm sometimes spending almost a third of my "sales" on raffle tickets. This seems really high to me. Do other players spend this much?

Edit: To be clear, I'm not suggesting any one guild is unfair or cheats. I'm just curious if people feel trade guild raffles are fair.

Seratopia · September 2016

You should look at the guild deposit history (assuming your guild doesn't mail the ticket money to an individual rather than straight in the guild bank) and see how much gold the guy who always wins spends on his. In one of my guilds when the prizes are good enough there are some people that spend fortunes for TONS tickets. If you just buy 1 or 5 or even 10 tickets the odds still will never be in your favor.

AzraelKrieg · September 2016

It really depends on the guild and the person running it. I run my guild's raffles and quite often I'll end up with a ton of tickets purchased by the same people each week. They don't care about winning so much as helping the guild out with the vendor bids. Due to this though they often win so I had to institute a policy where if they win a prize that week, they couldn't win another in the same week. Had one raffle result in one person winning 2 of the 3 prizes on offer.

As for the drawings, some guilds are more transparent than others. Some, such as myself, will announce the winners in the guild chat. Others won't announce them in guild chat and just put them into the guild Message of the Day. Some don't announce them at all. Winners are all random so if you haven't won yet, it's just that the numbers aren't being drawn for you through whatever program is being used to pick the winners.

AntMan100673 · September 2016

Most guild raffles are run on an x gold per ticket basis so if there are people donating 10's or 100's of thousand each week the odds are going to be massively against you.

Even if the raffle was one entry per person if you're in a guild of 500 people and everyone donates enough to be entered the odds are still going to be massively against you, though maybe by not quite so much.

Acrolas · September 2016

Never support unregulated gambling of any form.

Reward successful guild management with gold donations, but do it because they're doing a good job. Not because you expect anything more out of it than the support and opportunities you normally receive from being just a regular ol' member.

Throw even one chance to win out there, though, and Father Butthurt is going to start showing up to the after parties.

Balibe · September 2016

I have only one once, it was third place. The guild ran the draw live on Twitch for those that wanted to watch. You could also go back and see the draw & results later if you could not be there live .....

redspecter23 · September 2016

I run a PvE guild that also hosts a weekly raffle to help us bid on midrange locations. I do always worry about transparency with the raffle as there doesn't seem to be a way to ensure to all members that it's 100% completely legit. Even the addons that choose winners based on the bank log can be manipulated if someone choses to do so. I state upfront that all raffles are completely optional. Nobody will ever be forced or pressured into it. I do run into the same issue as the poster above in that someone who enters a large sum any given week has a very large chance of winning, which over time can make members consider that the raffle may be rigged, even if it's legit.

I guess all I can say is if you're not comfortable entering a raffle, either don't do it or consider it a donation instead and if you win something it's a bonus you were never expecting to get.

Wow · September 2016

You can just install the addon and check by yourself, I think every member should do this as well instead of blindly putting raffle as deposit without knowing anything, http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1423-RaffleGoldTally.html

With that you can see and guesstimate your winning chance, some people do deposit ALOT on raffle. So that's a given if they have higher chance at winning.

SteveCampsOut · September 2016

Acrolas wrote: »

Never support unregulated gambling of any form.

Reward successful guild management with gold donations, but do it because they're doing a good job. Not because you expect anything more out of it than the support and opportunities you normally receive from being just a regular ol' member.

Throw even one chance to win out there, though, and Father Butthurt is going to start showing up to the after parties.

And this is why I don't hold raffles. My guild traders are solely supported by donations and nobody is pressured to donate.

RizaHawkeye · September 2016

Wow wrote: »

You can just install the addon and check by yourself, I think every member should do this as well instead of blindly putting raffle as deposit without knowing anything, http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1423-RaffleGoldTally.html

With that you can see and guesstimate your winning chance, some people do deposit ALOT on raffle. So that's a given if they have higher chance at winning.

Thanks for this tip. I didn't know about this add-on.

Balibe · September 2016

Balibe wrote: »

I have only one once, it was third place. The guild ran the draw live on Twitch for those that wanted to watch. You could also go back and see the draw & results later if you could not be there live .....

Forgot to mention, I am on the XB1 so add-ons are not an option which makes Twitch draws nice .....

dustinoverfield · September 2016

Unfortunately trading guild raffles/auctions are a necessity with the current bidding system. However, looking at your numbers above, I would never expect any member to put 1/3 of what they make back into the guild. Buy less tickets and Im sure your management will be very appreciative of any you can afford to buy.

calia1120 · September 2016

Wow wrote: »

You can just install the addon and check by yourself, I think every member should do this as well instead of blindly putting raffle as deposit without knowing anything, http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1423-RaffleGoldTally.html

With that you can see and guesstimate your winning chance, some people do deposit ALOT on raffle. So that's a given if they have higher chance at winning.

Just a quick note on that addon - trader cutoff is currently only accurate for the NA megaserver - it's not correctly picking up EU megaserver, but that's something I'm working on fixing for the next update. Glad you guys like it.

Bryanonymous · September 2016

If you're buying raffle tickets to win, you're doing it wrong. The real win is getting that prime location to sell your loot. As I acquire more wealth, I up my contribution in raffle ticket spending towards my guilds. I don't expect to ever win. What the tickets are is a voluntary team effort to stay in business. If I happen to get lucky once in awhile, that's awesome and I like the feeling that there is a possibility, however my primary motive is to have a spot to sell my stuff in.