I would think of this the same way as a wedding invitation. Would you sell your RSVP to the highest bidder? Of course not—it’s family and friends only. Accept only if you want to come.
With these tickets I would assume that the donor is trying to establish that he wants a special relationship with the firm. A business partner, but more like a family than the other firms they deal with.
You don’t give free stuff to strangers.
An explicit invitation to a particular person for a private event isn’t even remotely similar to a donated ticket to be raffled off to any eligible entrant for a public event.
Oh…and people give free stuff to strangers ALL THE TIME. They are called donations or giveaways. There is even a category for it on craigslist.
This is not a public event.
And I think “raffle” may be the wrong word for it. My dictionary says a raffle is “a lottery scheme where tickets are sold for a chance to win a prize at a draw.”
This is free.
O.K. a wedding and a college basketball game are exactly the same.
I got 11 rebounds at my best friend’s wedding.
After a few cocktails the mother of bride showed off her dunk.
Christ, call it whatever you want - raffle, giveaway, donation, contest. We all know what we’re talking about.
It didn’t even occur to me to do that. Even if it did, I didn’t know my co-workers well enough (there were some I had never even met) to know who were NASCAR fans let alone who was the biggest NASCAR fan.
I don’t think that the person absolutely had to go. I wouldn’t have a problem with someone trying to win the tickets for a friend or relative who were huge fans. I also don’t think that it there should be a rule against someone winning the tickets and then selling them. It is, indeed, theirs to do with what they want. I am simply of the opinion that doing it would be shitty and it’s clear that a lot of your co-workers would feel the same way if they found out.
Totally agreed.
I don’t actually believe you mean this.
I typed out quite a long response, then thought better of it, because after all, this is a question about people’s opinions - people were asked whether something feels wrong or right to them, and they responded, I presume fairly honestly. People aren’t weaselling when they try to explain why they honestly feel a certain way about something.
Believe whatever you like.
I agree. I honestly wanted to know why people felt it was their place to judge what others do with their winnings. Tacky, rude, assholish, all were flung about to describe someone who chose to sell their own property. I didn’t see much explanation at all for these feelings, let alone introspection, so I asked for clarification. In my opinion, much of the response I received wasn’t explanation for their opinions at all, but rather distractions from the issue at hand. I called that weaselling, perhaps for you that was honest explanation. I still don’t think I’ve gotten much in the way of explanation. As an example hajario just said, “I am simply of the opinion that doing it would be shitty…”. This is a statement of his opinion - to which he is entitled - but it isn’t an explanation for it. I am aware that people cannot always explain why they feel how they feel and it appears this is one of those cases.
I won a pair of Red Sox tickets this year in a very similar situation. A supplier of ours donated 2 pairs of very good tickets to a game that day. Our office manager sent out mail saying anyone who wanted to could send her their name, and at noon she’d pick out two winning people to each get a pair of tickets. Everyone was invited to enter.
The underlying assumption behind this was that people would go to the game. Giving them to a spouse would certainly have been accepted. Selling them would not. It’s a matter of office and group dynamics. Regardless of the ethics and morals, it would not have been good for my career to have sold the tickets and pocketed the cash. You can argue all you want about absolute rights of ownership of the gift, but all of that falls apart in the face of the realities of group dynamics. Taking an experience that can be lived vicariously by our team and exchanging it for cash flies in the face of the purpose of the entire operation.
We don’t operate in a vacuum. Legally, I certainly could have sold the tickets. Ethically I could not have. By entering into the drawing I entered into an agreement to actually use the prize in the spirit of both the donation and the drawing.
Completely different situation.
Why is this? My guess is that more people would be disappointed about their decision to donate if the winner sold the donation on Ebay.
That’s the point that I am trying to make. We live a society with other people and should behave as such. There are Pit threads about such behavior nearly every day.
When you pull up to a red stop light in the right lane, do you pull over as far to the left as is safe in case someone behind you wants to make a right turn?
When you’re at the market and and you realize that there’s something in your cart that you no longer want, do you put it back where you got it or do you just toss it on the nearest shelf?
When you’re in a restaurant and there’s a long wait for a table and you’re done with your meal, do linger over your coffee for 45 minutes?
There is a considerate way to behave in each of those situations and I bet that you can choose which it is. Doing the inconsiderate thing isn’t illegal and you’re entitled to do it too. That doesn’t make it appropriate, in my opinion. I don’t know if you included me among the weasels but I hope this makes things more clear.
I don’t see why an opinion becomes “flung” just because you don’t agree with it. And I don’t see how an explanation becomes “weaselling” or “distracting” just because you don’t agree with it, either.
It’s tacky to contravene the good intentions of a person giving a gift, because you’ve turned in a generous act on their part into something that may make them feel bad – that the gift was not appreciated or wanted, because instead of using it, you’ve sold it. Does EVERY PERSON feel that way? No, but a lot of people do. It doesn’t matter IMO if you’re talking an event pass given as a employee appreciation gift or the fourth Crock-pot you received for your wedding. Can you sell it? Sure. But to avoid the “tacky” label, you don’t let the gifter know you’ve done so. Every person who gave you a Crock-pot thinks theirs is the one you’ve used.
In the OP, the issue is complicated because the gift isn’t given to one person, it was offered to a group of people, some of whom really WOULD enjoy the event, people who really WOULD fulfill the presumed intent of the donor by going and having a good time. Under those circumstances, to enter into the raffle means that not only are you potentially frustrating the intent of the gifter, you are preventing a coworker who really would enjoy the gift from doing so. So you are potentially making two people feel worse who would feel better but for your actions. And IMO to put your own self-aggrandizement above the feelings of your coworkers and clients, when NOT doing so is no skin off your nose (all you have to do is refrain from the raffle) – that IMO is tacky.
So that’s my opinion, and that’s my explanation for my opinion. I’m not much interested in anyone’s judgment as to the sufficiency of it.
Sorry, it’s probably just the tone I thought I read in your responses - particularly the use of the word ‘weaselling’ - It doesn’t look nearly so clear on re-reading this morning though, so I apologise for picking on it in that way.
I wouldn’t enter the raffle. Entering is playing dog in the manger.
Well, your office isn’t having a “real” raffle–in which one buys tickets. It’s a way to distribute fairly an item that many people really want. And others don’t.
If you don’t want to go to the game, don’t enter the raffle.
I’m with InLucemEdita, although I am trying hard to wrap my head around everyone else’s point of view, because I do realize that selling the tickets would cause hard feelings. (That’s why I would do it and then keep my mouth shut. 
) I suspect it’s because these are tickets to a sporting event, and people have strong feelings about sports. Would anything change if these were tickets to a play?
Are you at all paying attention? Of course nothing would change.
Okay, I just don’t get it then. Homie is an employee. He does want the tickets. They aren’t the only existing tickets in the world, so if anyone really has to see this game they can buy their own. Why should he not have them?
Your property, your decision. (barring legal issues with reselling, I don’t go to enough ticketed events to keep up on those rules)
If you want to sell them on ebay, go for it. If you want to give them to someone else in the office, have at. If you want to get everyones attention in your office and then drop the tickets in a trash can and set them on fire that is your choice. Keep in mind that the people you work with may very well feel negatively about any or all of those choices and do what you are comfortable living with.
I do not have an opinion on this, but is it possible for verification as to whether or not the Payroll Babe is indeed a babe?
What **Giraffe ** said. In fact, in a similar situation, my workplace specified that only people who wanted to actually attend the game should put their names in for the drawing. I went to the game. (Bucs preseason, box tickets, woo!)