Source Secret Santa 2014?

[Higgs]

One idea I'd like to suggest is that everyone participating tries to personalize their packages. It doesn't have to be anything exciting, just something more than cards in an envelope. Things like an alter done by you or even just a short note. Otherwise it just seems like we're making blind trades.

Last year I sent my recipient Japanese versions of the cards he had on his wishlist and my first alter ever, a christmas elf crop rotation, which I thought was pretty brilliant. He posted a brief thanks but never shared any photos so I was a bit disappointed. I'm not sure if I can go above what I've done last year so I'm not sure whether I should participate this year.

[Mr Miagi]

Last year I sent my recipient Japanese versions of the cards he had on his wishlist and my first alter ever, a christmas elf crop rotation, which I thought was pretty brilliant. He posted a brief thanks but never shared any photos so I was a bit disappointed. I'm not sure if I can go above what I've done last year so I'm not sure whether I should participate this year.

I feel you. Three (4?) years a go I sent out a german Force of Will in an oldschool Sci-Fi book. Recepient didn't bother to confirm (becasue asking for braging is to much). Already thought my pacakge was lost.. Had to go through SS organizer to check with recepient that he indeed did receive the pacakge. Not a pleasant experience.

[Dice_Box]

Planned on actively trolling my victim (and I guess I'll send something nice as reperation)

Just trying to figure out how

Coal Golems?

[Valtrix]

Hey guys, almost done writing up my guidelines for the Secret Santa. Sorry about the delay! I can then get some feedback about everything and then create the thread for the event.

[UseLess]

I feel you. Three (4?) years a go I sent out a german Force of Will in an oldschool Sci-Fi book. Recepient didn't bother to confirm (becasue asking for braging is to much). Already thought my pacakge was lost.. Had to go through SS organizer to check with recepient that he indeed did receive the pacakge. Not a pleasant experience.

Same happened to me last year. I had sent a package with a Berserk, altered Mangara of Corondor as Santa and a set of phyrexian revokers altered in matching Christmas style + some extras. Never heard anything of it. I still hope that he will at some point confirm the package has arrived, even the organizers didn't hear from him... Tip to everyone: make photo's/scans of your alters so your hard work isn't 'lost' when the victim does not receive/brag about it ;).

[Valtrix]

Okay guys, here's my draft of the post I will start the thread with. Please give me some feedback on everything first, and then in a day or two I can officially start the thread. Sorry if it's a bit long, but I wanted to describe all the details of the process. (And then have a nice document which can be reused next year.)

The Source Secret Santa 2014

1. Introduction
2. How to sign up
3. Requirements for sign up
4. How the event will be organized
5. How to write a wish list
6. What to send
7. Backup santas
8. Expectations and issues
9. Dates

Introduction

Hello everyone, this brings another year of organizing The Source Secret Santa. This is a very popular event that many people enjoy, so let’s make it another great year. If you’re not familiar the basic idea is this: Send cards to a random person based on their wish list and receive cards from a random person from your wish list. Pretty simple! As long as everybody agrees to a few standards everything will go smoothly and we can have another great year.

How to sign up

Post in this thread indicating that you would like to sign up, along with your wish list. You may update your wish list after your initial post! After you sign up, please send me a private message with the information as below. If you forget to send me a message, I will also ask you for it.

• Real name
• Address
• Country/region
• Alternative contact (phone number, email, etc.)
• Willing to ship internationally?

Your name and address will only be shared with the person sending you a gift and myself. The alternative contact will only be known by me and only used if I have tried to contact you via forum private message but have not heard back from you in a timely manner. This is purely a quality control effort, as last year there were a few people which didn’t communicate well and I’d like to avoid that this year. If you're concerned about any of these details, send me a message to discuss it. Really, communication is the most important part of this event!

Requirements for sign up

First, you must let me know your participation by 11/9/14. However, you can still sign up after this deadline on a rolling basis. What I'll do is that when two people sign up after the deadline they will get paired together. This way everybody that wants to participate can, even if you're on the fence originally. If you sign up late just expect that your package might arrive a little late!

Otherwise you must have an account which has been registered for 3 months and a post count of at least 25 to sign up with no questions asked. However, in the past we’ve had plenty of lurkers with great gifts, so if you don’t meet these two requirements just send me a message detailing your interest in the event. I’ll do a brief screening and might ask you a couple questions before adding you to the event. Sorry for anybody that this is an inconvenience to, but I think everybody will feel a bit better participating knowing that there’s a small screening process.

How the event will be organized

Pairings will happen randomly between people in the same groups (the states and international shippers). You will not be receiving cards from the same person you are sending cards to, unless you sign up after the normal sign up date in which case I will just pair each new two people together. This way you can't really feel bad about sending somebody more than they sent you since it's a different person sending you things.

I will track everybody's information to make sure that people ship on time and have received their packages. That means when you ship or receive you should let me know so I can mark you down for this.

How to write a wish list

The minimum gift amount this year will be $35. Many people tend to go more than that, this is just a guideline. Your wish list should contain cards with a mix of values and try to include as many things as you can to try and help make life as easy as possible for your secret Santa. If you ask for really expensive or hard to find things it might be difficult for your Santa to assemble a good package!

Try to be as specific as possible. Include the maximum number of a card you would like to receive. (That is, don’t write “daze,” instead say “3 daze”). Let people know how you feel about foils or foreign cards. If there are certain things you prioritize the most, indicate that in your wish list. Below is an example of a great wish list from last year. It has a mix of values and formats for the desired cards and is well put together. The more things you ask for the better, as it gives your Santa more options. (But only put things you'd be happy receiving of course. Spend a little time on this.)

- Alpha or Beta basics, any shape.
- 4 portal/ Portal 2nd age Armageddons!
- 4 Stronghold Ensnaring Bridges.
- Any number of Artificer's Intuition. Foil or non foil, any language which is not Italian/English.
- 4 Baleful Strix.
- 1 foil english Ancestral Vision
- 4 Submerge
- 3 Unexpectedly Absent
- 3 Toxic Deluge
- 1 Strategic Planning
- 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 1 foil english 7th Fallen Angel
- 1 Linvala, keeper of silence
- 4 Birds of Paradise (any edition with old frame!)
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
- 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
- 3 Bonfire of the Damned
- 4 Young Pyromancer
- 3 Cryptic Command
- 4 Loxodon Smiter

What to send

Obviously try to fill out your Santa’s request as best you can, within reasonable cost limits. You might want to stop by a local game store, or even order a few things online yourself for your gift receiver. Remember that the minimum recommended gift is amount is $35 in card value. Sometimes you might not be able to fill the needs of a particular person’s list very well. As long as you can get them some things from their list, there are lots of simple ways to supplement your gift to turn it into a great package. Here are a few suggestions:

• Send chocolate. Everybody loves sweets!
• Make an abacus life counter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UAcSHttpiA). I made one of these my first year and my recipient loved it.
• Card alters: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSS1mEadWqo). Even if you’re not a fantastic artist it’s not too difficult to do some boarder extensions on cards with simple color schemes.
• Use cheap cards to tell some kind of story. For example, last year I had a stack of cards and sticky notes between them last year which told a silly Christmas story. They said silly things like, “This year I…” then there was a copy of opt “…ed to send you a great gift.”
• Sending Legacy staples is also a good way to flesh out your package too, even if they’re not on your sender’s list.
• Scout a user’s posts and see what they play. Maybe if they play a lot of lightning bolt decks you could send them a cool lightning bolt—foil, old edition, altered, foreign, whatever.

Backup Santas

From past experience, there are usually a couple people that don't receive gifts. This is unfortunate, but unavoidable. In these cases it's good to have a few people as backup santas who can send out a gift in case of an issue like this. If this is something you're willing to do, let me know. It will be greatly appreciated.

Expectations and Issues

Have the expectation that the package you receive might be a little worse than the one you spend, but if something like this would ruin your experience than it might not be best to participate. This is supposed to be a fun event and in general it is but some mishaps are unfortunately unavoidable.

If there are any issues with any part of the event, please send me a private message. Really, it can be anything. Did my person ship? Is my package good enough? I’m not sure I can do a good job with my person’s list, what should I do? I will keep my inbox empty and will do my best to handle any problems that come up this year in a timely manner.

Important: Try to keep negativity out of this thread. If there is a real problem, it is best to deal with it by sending me a message first.

Dates

11/9/14: Last day to sign up. Late enrollers will be accepted on a rolling basis. See signup details.
11/10/14: Pairing will be sent out.
12/12/14: Recommended ship by date. If you’re international, consider going sooner if you can.

[iamajellydonut]

I like that as the OP.

[Allcoin]

Okay guys, here's my draft of the post I will start the thread with. Please give me some feedback on everything first, and then in a day or two I can officially start the thread. Sorry if it's a bit long, but I wanted to describe all the details of the process. (And then have a nice document which can be reused next year.)

The Source Secret Santa 2014

1. Introduction
2. How to sign up
3. Requirements for sign up
4. How the event will be organized
5. How to write a wish list
6. What to send
7. Backup santas
8. Expectations and issues
9. Dates

Introduction

Hello everyone, this brings another year of organizing The Source Secret Santa. This is a very popular event that many people enjoy, so let’s make it another great year. If you’re not familiar the basic idea is this: Send cards to a random person based on their wish list and receive cards from a random person from your wish list. Pretty simple! As long as everybody agrees to a few standards everything will go smoothly and we can have another great year.

How to sign up

Post in this thread indicating that you would like to sign up, along with your wish list. You may update your wish list after your initial post! After you sign up, please send me a private message with the information as below. If you forget to send me a message, I will also ask you for it.



Your name and address will only be shared with the person sending you a gift and myself. The phone number will only be known by me and only used if I have tried to contact you via forum private message but have not heard back from you in a timely manner. This is purely a quality control effort, as last year there were a few people which didn’t communicate well and I’d like to avoid that this year. If you're concerned about any of these details, send me a message to discuss it. Really, communication is the most important part of this event!

Requirements for sign up

First, you must let me know your participation by 11/9/14. However, you can still sign up after this deadline on a rolling basis. What I'll do is that when two people sign up after the deadline they will get paired together. This way everybody that wants to participate can, even if you're on the fence originally. If you sign up late just expect that your package might arrive a little late!

Otherwise you must have an account which has been registered for 3 months and a post count of at least 25 to sign up with no questions asked. However, in the past we’ve had plenty of lurkers with great gifts, so if you don’t meet these two requirements just send me a message detailing your interest in the event. I’ll do a brief screening and might ask you a couple questions before adding you to the event. Sorry for anybody that this is an inconvenience to, but I think everybody will feel a bit better participating knowing that there’s a small screening process.

How the event will be organized

Pairings will happen randomly between people in the same groups (the states and international shippers). You will not be receiving cards from the same person you are sending cards to, unless you sign up after the normal sign up date in which case I will just pair each new two people together. This way you can't really feel bad about sending somebody more than they sent you since it's a different person sending you things.

I will track everybody's information to make sure that people ship on time and have received their packages. That means when you ship or receive you should let me know so I can mark you down for this.

How to write a wish list

The minimum gift amount this year will be $35. Many people tend to go more than that, this is just a guideline. Your wish list should contain cards with a mix of values and try to include as many things as you can to try and help make life as easy as possible for your secret Santa. If you ask for really expensive or hard to find things it might be difficult for your Santa to assemble a good package!

Try to be as specific as possible. Include the maximum number of a card you would like to receive. (That is, don’t write “daze,” instead say “3 daze”). Let people know how you feel about foils or foreign cards. If there are certain things you prioritize the most, indicate that in your wish list. Below is an example of a great wish list from last year. It has a mix of values and formats for the desired cards and is well put together. The more things you ask for the better, as it gives your Santa more options. (But only put things you'd be happy receiving of course. Spend a little time on this.)



What to send

Obviously try to fill out your Santa’s request as best you can, within reasonable cost limits. You might want to stop by a local game store, or even order a few things online yourself for your gift receiver. Remember that the minimum recommended gift is amount is $35 in card value. Sometimes you might not be able to fill the needs of a particular person’s list very well. As long as you can get them some things from their list, there are lots of simple ways to supplement your gift to turn it into a great package. Here are a few suggestions:

•Send chocolate. Everybody loves sweets!
•Make an abacus life counter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UAcSHttpiA). I made one of these my first year and my recipient loved it.
•Card alters: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSS1mEadWqo). Even if you’re not a fantastic artist it’s not too difficult to do some boarder extensions on cards with simple color schemes.
•Use cheap cards to tell some kind of story. For example, last year I had a stack of cards and sticky notes between them last year which told a silly Christmas story. They said silly things like, “This year I…” then there was a copy of opt “…ed to send you a great gift.”
•Sending Legacy staples is also a good way to flesh out your package too, even if they’re not on your sender’s list.
•Scout a user’s posts and see what they play. Maybe if they play a lot of lightning bolt decks you could send them a cool lightning bolt—foil, old edition, altered, foreign, whatever.

Backup Santas

From past experience, there are usually a couple people that don't receive gifts. This is unfortunate, but unavoidable. In these cases it's good to have a few people as backup santas who can send out a gift in case of an issue like this. If this is something you're willing to do, let me know. It will be greatly appreciated.

Expectations and Issues

Have the expectation that the package you receive might be a little worse than the one you spend, but if something like this would ruin your experience than it might not be best to participate. This is supposed to be a fun event and in general it is but some mishaps are unfortunately unavoidable.

If there are any issues with any part of the event, please send me a private message. Really, it can be anything. Did my person ship? Is my package good enough? I’m not sure I can do a good job with my person’s list, what should I do? I will keep my inbox empty and will do my best to handle any problems that come up this year in a timely manner.

Important: Try to keep negativity out of this thread. If there is a real problem, it is best to deal with it by sending me a message first.

Dates

11/9/14: Last day to sign up. Late enrollers will be accepted on a rolling basis. See signup details.
11/10/14: Pairing will be sent out.
12/12/14: Recommended ship by date. If you’re international, consider going sooner if you can.

Looks great. Though I don't think I have enough posts to participate :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zombiesquisher]

Looks great!

[Dice_Box]

Looks great. Though I don't think I have enough posts to participate :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You will have enough soon enough. Plus its a way of weeding out those that just log on and go "Looks good, send me free shit". Seeing as your not a new account (so your not signing up just to scam) and you have made constructive posts on other threads in the past, I do not feel like you would have too much of an issue signing up.

[Valtrix]

Otherwise you must have an account which has been registered for 3 months and a post count of at least 25 to sign up with no questions asked. However, in the past we’ve had plenty of lurkers with great gifts, so if you don’t meet these two requirements just send me a message detailing your interest in the event. I’ll do a brief screening and might ask you a couple questions before adding you to the event. Sorry for anybody that this is an inconvenience to, but I think everybody will feel a bit better participating knowing that there’s a small screening process.

No problem, just send me a message. But, you'll probably have 25 posts by then. I think the requirements are pretty lean, but I put in an extra clause in the original post for just in case.

[Mr Miagi]

I'd add something like this to the guidelines/rules for SS14:

• Upon receipt of the pacakge confirm this on forum (brags are optional but highly desired )

• Don't open till Christmas! You inpatient fucks! just kidding (a bit), but it makes it so much more interesting to unrwap gifts on Crhistmas eve/morning

[afb0032]

Looks great Valtrix. Thanks for creating a template for future years as well.

[Sloshthedark]

Valtrix - Thanks for running this, great OP

Same happened to me last year. I had sent a package with a Berserk, altered Mangara of Corondor as Santa and a set of phyrexian revokers altered in matching Christmas style + some extras. Never heard anything of it. I still hope that he will at some point confirm the package has arrived, even the organizers didn't hear from him... Tip to everyone: make photo's/scans of your alters so your hard work isn't 'lost' when the victim does not receive/brag about it ;).

happened to me 2/3 years, playset of alters, special stuff, bought wishlist foils... so a Sad Santa bragging thread this year? =D

[Fry]

Expectations and Issues

Have the expectation that the package you receive might be a little worse than the one you spend, but if something like this would ruin your experience than it might not be best to participate. This is supposed to be a fun event and in general it is but some mishaps are unfortunately unavoidable.

It looks great to me, I just noticed what may have been a typo. You wrote, "Spend," and I think you may have meant, "Sent."

I think that the proposed starting post looks great and is informative and provides great guidelines for the wishlist and how to personalize your own package for your victim, I mean recipient...

[J.V.]

I'm in. Let me kmow the details.

[Whippoorwill]

Looks good!

I'd add something like this to the guidelines/rules for SS14:

• Upon receipt of the pacakge confirm this on forum (brags are optional but highly desired )

Cosign. At worst just post that you received and what you got. As for pictures, I'd rather see a shitty cell phone pic than no pic.

Sucks to hear that multiple people sent awesome packages and the recipients didn't post pictures for the rest of us to see.

On a side note, I'm going to see if I can find some cards to donate. I'm unsure how many lots I'll do, but they would be chosen randomly based on certain qualifications. Currently I'm thinking of the following groupings (open to more ideas as well):

-Those who have been confirmed to have sent by X-date (as decided by Valtrix).
-Those who have posted pictures of their (received) presents by X-date (as decided by Valtrix).

Just something as an incentive to those making sure to get their packages out on time and for those posting bragging pictures.

[amalek0]

I'm interested in participating--I'm starting to work on doing my own alters, and this might be a good way to share them with people who appreciate them.

[nodahero]

I'm in again!!

[afb0032]

Just letting everyone know who hasn't seen it yet, the official thread for 2014 is stickied. If you wish to participate please post in there.