Our school is looking to hold a fundraiser. We wanted to sell keys to a locked treasure chest with something nice inside!. Only One key would open the lock. So I need to find aprox 100-200 bad keys that wont work
Can any one help me on how I could go about this ? I called a few local locksmiths and they do not save miss cut keys.
As it is a fundraiser for the school kids we did not want to have to buy and miss cut the 100-200 bad keys (at $1.30 per key) that was the best price I could get).
First off this is a wonderful idea... BUT you have to be careful when you do this type of thing, that it does not become a lottery... The mall I used to work for would do one of these type of things every spring to create a weekend "sales boom"... I have also seen businesses, from banks to car dealerships, hold give-aways like this in the past in my local area...
If in holding this fundrasier, you are at any time requiring consideration [any form of payment: I.E. requiring people to "purchase" a key] to be given for a chance to win a prize and you therefore are creating a lottery/sweepstakes situation, which is illegal in most locations in the US... You should check with a local attorney about this scenario BEFORE you hold this fundraiser, to see if it is permissable under your state's laws... You must be clear that it is a give-away with no purchase required in order to have a chance to win and work to find another way for donations to be made to the fundrasier, perhaps by selling cookies or other tangible goods during the event, but NOT requiring the people to purchase the keys for a chance to win the prize...
The mall would station employees at each entrance and allow each person entering the mall to pick a key out of a glass fish bowl at a table located just inside each entrance...
I don't remember the name of the promotional company the mall I worked for used to order from -- but I do remember that the entire promotional "kit" came in one box [a fancy wooden "treasure chest" and several thousand "bogus" keys, and a small number of "winning" keys]... I don't know how much the mall marketing staff paid to purchase this kit, but you sound like you are looking for a much smaller set-up...
I did a websearch for ["treasure chest" +promotional keys] on google and found a company that sells affordable kits that are exactly what you are looking for...
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I hope that it all works out for you...
Evan, ~~ formerly a maintenance man, now a college student...
I've seen a car dealer in my area do that-only they mass-mailed the keys-did'nt sell them. They were aluminum and very thin-definitely novelty.
Also, being a not-for-profit organization could have bearing on it-different from shopping mall.
If he sold "a chance to use the key" and the key had to be returned-might be different-you are selling a chance of using the key-not the key itself. ask a lawyer about it is my advice. good luck.
there's a store in (Las Vegas) one of those casino shopping malls, that gives customers a chance to pick a key to open a box to get a "special" prize.
Well I happened to look at the keys and ALL the keys were identical. And I also saw a customer use one of the keys and sure enough, it opened the lock. The prize was half off something or other I forget what, but wasn't that clever, make the mark think he'd won something or been lucky.
Not different... A "give-away" is still a "give-away", the only difference I see is in the number of keys they would need...
Selling "a chance to use the key" is still asking consideration for a chance to win, which is therefore illegal, as it becomes a lottery... Returning the instrument which decides a winner from a loser is irrelevant, as consideration was still required in order to have an opportunity to win...
Evan, ~~ formerly a maintenance man, now a college student...
A lottery/raffle may be legal, if conducted properly... but you need to check your local laws FIRST, and we can't help you with that.
Typically these things use the cheapest locks possible that will reliably recognize one good key and reject others, since security is not a concern. Usually a simple warded mechanism, just enough that the correct key isn't at-a-glance obviously different from the incorrect ones.
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