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Raffles and Numbered Tickets

myShop can sell products where every unit carries a unique number — raffle tickets, reverse raffles, numbered squares. Instead of choosing a size or color, purchasers get a number nobody else can have.

Setting up a numbered product

Create the product as normal, then give it an option of type range rather than the usual list of choices. A range is defined by its start and end — 1-500 sells five hundred numbers.

You then decide how numbers are handed out:

  • Purchaser chooses — they pick from the numbers still available
  • Automatically assigned — a number is generated at checkout

Let purchasers choose when the number means something to them (a jersey number, a birthday). Automatic assignment is faster and better suited to volume selling.

How numbers stay unique

Two mechanisms keep the same number from being sold twice.

A hold while the number is in a cart. Choosing a number reserves it for ten minutes. Anyone else browsing during that window sees it as taken.

A final check at purchase. If someone takes longer than the hold — leaves the tab open, gets interrupted — their number may have been sold in the meantime. Rather than failing the purchase, myShop assigns a different available number automatically.

A slow checkout can change the number

This is rare, but it's real: if a purchaser sits on the checkout page for more than ten minutes, the number they picked may not be the number they get.

If someone tells you they were assigned the wrong number, this is why. Check their order — the number on it is the number they own.

Buying several units creates a separate line per unit, each with its own number, rather than one line with a quantity.

Student sponsor tracking

Raffles are often sold by students, and who sold what determines credit or a split.

Orders can record a student sponsor — the student who made the sale. The product's dashboard tallies sales per sponsor, and distinguishes three cases:

  • Sponsors matching a student account in myblueboard
  • Names entered that don't match any account, shown as (no account)
  • Orders with no sponsor recorded

That middle bucket is the one to watch. It's usually a spelling variation — "Katie" against "Katherine", a maiden name, a typo. Sponsors can be edited on the order to consolidate them. Do it as you go rather than at payout time.

Payouts and expenses

Raffles pay out, and the product dashboard tracks it. Record prize payouts and costs as expenses against the product, and the dashboard shows a running total paid out alongside what came in.

The winning number can be recorded and checked against purchased numbers, which gives you the purchaser without scrolling a list of five hundred.

Sponsorship can be set up as a percentage of each sale or a fixed amount per item sold — the dashboard totals either one. Products with no sponsorship configured simply show nothing earned.

Running a raffle

  • Decide the range before you start selling. Extending it later is awkward and the numbers already sold don't move
  • Sell the numbers, not the tickets — the record in myblueboard is what determines the winner, not a paper stub
  • Reconcile sponsors weekly, while students still remember who sold what
  • Check your local rules. Raffles are regulated differently by state and by organization type. myblueboard tracks the sale; it doesn't make it legal