Old Mate has jumped the gun a bit, but it’s exciting times so who can blame him? The cat is out of the bag and it’s time to come clean. We’ve been conspiring on a plan to bring back the Monster Raffle as an SGS Fundraiser around September this year. There are still a few details to be sorted out but with a couple of months of build-up I think we can have everything in place and do the old Monster Raffle concept the justice it deserves. It’s going to be tough to top those original ones from back in 2018-19 for sheer size in silver ounces but I reckon we should give it a red hot go anyways!
Now since I’m in full disclosure mode – I had also been thinking that if we were going to bring back the Monster Raffle then it’d be best if it wasn’t just a one-off or Ad Hoc event like it was last time. Ideally it would be in the calendar semi-regularly and something that people could look forward to and even plan around. Something we could build up with some excitement and hype over months. It can’t be too frequent or it’ll lose it’s special and unique status as well as burn out our prize contributors and organisers….but it also can’t be so infrequent that people forget about it entirely like it has been for the last 4 years! My thinking was that maybe every 6 months (2 events a year) would be a sweet spot between the extremes and if the first one is held in September that would put the second one in March 2024….
...which would line it up perfectly with the SGS Vegas Meetup that the SGS community has held for the last 2 years. For those who remember, we held one of our old Monster Raffles at the Alliance Block Party which was a real life meetup event back in the day too. How good would that be!? Doing a Monster Raffle at the Vegas Meetup would add extra appeal to the Vegas Meetup and we would not only be able to see the Monster Raffle draw live – in person – but we’d have people able to bring their donated prizes TO the event and have winners even choose them on the spot to take home! The potential for sponsorship would also be pretty good with some of our artisan hand-pour connections hopefully getting involved as they’d likely be able to pick up a couple of extra sales at the draw and amongst the Coin Show attendees. Oh, and did I mention recruitment? What better place to recruit Precious Metals enthusiasts as new members and new sponsors for SGS than at the Vegas Coin show where they converge en masse?
I get goosebumps just thinking about the possibilities. Maybe its a bit of fantasy but you've got to have dreams! The Monster Raffle needs to learn to crawl before it can walk again....but I personally think that SGS is ready to stand up and it sounds like Old Mate 
