Despite having only announced my Soldiers’ Angels Fundraiser and Giveaway a week ago, and despite that week including a long holiday weekend, the gunblogger community has already donated $355 to that outstanding organization (you can keep up with the donations with the ticker near the top of the left column on my site).
However, it is now my distinct pleasure and honor to sweeten the pot a little more, by announcing a new prize that has never before seen the light of day… well, anywhere, really*. By now, most folks who read weblogs like this one are familiar with Dragon Leatherworks and the outstanding products fabricated there, but if you are not, you can catch up with reviews here, here, here, here, here, and here, just for starters, and if you live in the greater Knoxville area, you will be able to manhandle them for yourself at Austin’s Tennessee Firearms in Oak Ridge. Anywise, Dennis of Dragon Leatherworks recently announced that he was getting into pocket holsters, but, as all new product launches go, he only had a few models to show off. Well, here is the variant available for the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380:
And, oh, by the way, that is the new prize! (Firearm not included.)
This yet-unnamed (I think) holster is done up in snakeskin, and is designed to safely transport your S&W Bodyguard in your pocket while allowing nothing into the triggerguard area… and look pretty darned snazzy when you have to put it up every night! I am told these holsters will be added to his site sometime early in December, but this particular one will be made up and in my hands within the next few weeks, which means absolutely no waiting for the winner.
Which brings me to an interesting question… how do you want me to handle this particular prize? This is the first one I have that would not be usable by everyone, which leads me to two options:
1. We just toss it into the pool (at the top, currently, given its $100 MSRP) and let whoever wins it win it and then decide what they want to do with it afterwards – seems to me that having a holster but no matching firearm is a problem with an easy solution, but the other side of that coin is that some very generous anonymous donors have indicated they want their drawing tickets to be designated for "Any Soldier in Afghanistan", and I do not think I could mail this there if they won (or, at least, if I did, I am not sure what use it would be).
2. We start allowing for ticket "designations" – basically, when you donate, include a short message indicating how many tickets you want going into the "general" pool, and how many tickets you want going into the "holster" pool. I will proceed with the standard rules for all of the previous prizes (and any other generic prizes we receive), and then hold an additional drawing for the holster. Despite requiring me to do a little juggling with the folks who have already donated, I think this might be the best solution, but that is my opinion.
Anywise, make your opinion known in comments, or, preferably, in the poll at the top of the left page column here on the site (if you are reading this in an RSS reader, please click through) and we will go with whatever you all feel would be appropriate – this little exercise is less about the prizes and more about supporting Soldiers’ Angels, after all. (And if the poll does not work, please let me know – the script is being wonky.)
And with an awesome holster on the table… well, that seems like a perfect reason to donate to me!
Speaking of support, I would like to personally thank Bob S., Jason, Jay G., Brick, Say Uncle, WizardPC, MaddMedic, and Firehand for linking to the fundraiser (if I missed your link, please let me know), as well as those people who have donated so far to Soldiers’ Angels and especially those folks who have redirected their tickets to "Any Soldier". Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Also, fun fact about the current situation: I have more prizes than I have donators. *hint*hint*nudge*nudge*WHACK*
(* – No, really, Jay G. fought me for the privilege of being the first one to put the pictures up, and I WON. Hah! …*ahem*)
As yet un-named is correct…thinking up product names really is a challenge, because some stuff that you think up at 3AM when you’re wide awake and rather punchy just sounds horrible the next day after your 4th cup of coffee…
If anyone would care to toss some product names out, I’m all ears…
Serious names, please…last thing we need is a silly 10,000 comment thread starting here….
It won’t let me vote, (invalid poll answer???WTF? I checked holster…) but I think that I’d rather have my tickets go into the general pool, and have the option to designate how many would go to the holster. Sadly, I don’t own a Bodyguard, but have a Taurus TCP instead.
Dennis is gonna go broke supporting all of the giveaways…err, fundraisers.
Mr. B wrote:
Nah…comes out of what I set aside each month towards marketing…but instead of sending out a review sample to someone, I donate it to a good cause instead.
I can wait another month before tapping my marketing fund and sending out a review unit…our military men and women sometimes can’t, and definitely shouldn’t, wait a month for something they need. If my leathercraft can help up the donations and make the donation bigger, well then, that is the higher road, and the more noble thing, isn’t it?
Let the draw of tickets determine a pick order. First name drawn can pick the holster or whatever he/she prefers. More work for Linoge, but I’m okay with that.
@ Dragon: The wife is voting “Happy to See Me”, but “Mr. Happy” might be shorter and easier to remember…
Regardless, thank you, again, for doing this!
@ Mr. B: Try the poll again – apparently the poll script freaks out when there are two instances of the poll on the same page. If it keeps breaking, I may have to find my sledgehammer.
Yeah, my concern is for the folks who do not own this gun, or who could not use the holster (the soldiers, in the latter case). But we will see what the public has to say.
@ Brick: More work, and a lot more time-consuming (which I have no real problems with), but how do we handled the “Any Soldier” “problem”?
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