NRA Life Membership sale

Upgrades past Life are also on sale, talking to the NRA today, they gave me the following info:

Life to Endowment: $250
Endowment to Patron: $300
Patron to Benefactor: $350

They also mentioned that in the past you could only upgrade one level at a time, now you can upgrade multiple levels (IE - from Life to Benefactor for $850 total, or whatever level you currently are a member at, to the next level you would like).
 
Len sponsored me on the $300 deal many years ago. What a deal that was and won’t be seen again. However, $600 is absolutely worth it and if I hadn’t gone in on that I would get in on this.
 
I don't understand the purpose.

When you pay for these memberships you actually receive nothing of value. Live vs Patron vs Benefactor doesn't actually change anything. You may get a hat?
So you're not really purchasing anything. So when the NRA "discounts" a particular membership level they are just reducing the price on something that has no value to begin with.
I think someone mentioned that this was a "good deal".

If I sold you a sticker for $5 but and offered another very similar sticker for $500...then discounted it to $300 is it really a good deal? It's still just a sticker.

On the flipside: the value the NRA receives is your contribution. That has actual value (hopefully) and the memberships are (or were) a representation of your contribution.
So if you actually want to contribute, then contribute. If a life membership costs $1k then give them $1k. Why give them $250 just so you can seem like a life member who gave $1k?.

Just very strange for people to try and get "deals" on them contributing to a cause.

It's like if I wanted to donate to St Jude's cancer research...why would you want to contribute $250 to their cause just so you can tell people that you are in the same group of people who actually contributed $1000?
You aren't doing $1000 worth of good for $250. You are just able to tell people you are.

At the end of the day maybe it all works out and the NRA gets more money. That's fine.
 
I don't understand the purpose.

When you pay for these memberships you actually receive nothing of value. Live vs Patron vs Benefactor doesn't actually change anything. You may get a hat?
So you're not really purchasing anything. So when the NRA "discounts" a particular membership level they are just reducing the price on something that has no value to begin with.
I think someone mentioned that this was a "good deal".

If I sold you a sticker for $5 but and offered another very similar sticker for $500...then discounted it to $300 is it really a good deal? It's a sticker.

On the flipside: the value the NRA receives is your contribution. That has actual value (hopefully) and the memberships are (or were) a representation of your contribution.
So if you actually want to contribute, then contribute. If a life membership costs $1k then give them $1k. Why give them $250 just so you can say you're a life member.
You didn't contribute the same as other life members but you get the same sticker?

Just very strange for people to try and get "deals" on them contributing to a cause.

It's like if I wanted to donate to St Jude's cancer research...why would you want to contribute $250 to their cause just so you can tell people that you are in the same group of people who actually contributed $1000?
You aren't doing $1000 worth of good for $250. You are just able to tell people you are.

At the end of the day maybe it all works out and the NRA gets more money. That's fine.

You are overthinking it. It’s a donation to the NRA and a lifetime subscription to a magazine (and maybe some cheap swag). Nothing less and nothing more. I don’t think anyone is going in on this expecting some great ROI or asset. So a “deal” just means you are becoming a life member at a reduced cost.
 
This.

That was an excellent deal then; even $600 isn’t bad, provided you’re fairly young.

It's all in the math and actuarial tables. Against annual renewal at the current $45 rate your break even point is 13 years 4 months. Against 5 year renewals at the current $150 rate it's 20 years. If you keep your money in the bank it loses value at the rate of inflation. Statistically (Actuarial Life Table) if you've been annual and you're under 72 or 5 year and under 62 it's a good deal.

ETA: It's true that you receive nothing of intrinsic value but there is some value in not getting 25 or so renewal notices a year.
 
Maybe I'm overthinking things.

I don't think it's a good deal to pay more money to get a "cause" to stop harassing you. That's not why I became a life member.

I also think that if you really wanted to help the cause then you give them what you can regardless of the level of membership is (especially if that membership level is essentially meaningless)

The annualized/amortized argument makes no sense to me because what you are purchasing has no value.
You're saying that you get a "deal" because you pay less to purchase something worth nothing...than if you were to spend more in annual payments to buy something worth nothing.

In the end all you've done is donated less to the cause, which doesn't seem like a deal to me.

I became a life member because I actually wanted to donate to the cause. At the time I became one I believe the $300 option was there but why would I chose it? The whole purpose was to give the $1k and hope they did something meaningful with it. I didn't want to shortchange them $700.
 
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I just did my last upgrade to benefactor level. Now all that is left is to donate and buy cheap NRA items from the NRA store that are made in China....

But so be it.....every little bit helps the cause.
 
Maybe I'm overthinking things.

I don't think it's a good deal to pay more money to get a "cause" to stop harassing you. That's not why I became a life member.

I also think that if you really wanted to help the cause then you give them what you can regardless of the level of membership is (especially if that membership level is essentially meaningless)

The annualized/amortized argument makes no sense to me because what you are purchasing has no value.
You're saying that you get a "deal" because you pay less to purchase something worth nothing...than if you were to spend more in annual payments to buy something worth nothing.

In the end all you've done is donated less to the cause, which doesn't seem like a deal to me.

I became a life member because I actually wanted to donate to the cause. At the time I became one I believe the $300 option was there but why would I chose it? The whole purpose was to give the $1k and hope they did something meaningful with it. I didn't want to shortchange them $700.

But if you’re not inclined to join at all or are feeling vaguely like, oh, just maybe you should join, but maybe not, blah blah.... and are enticed by one of these deals, then the NRA is getting $500 where, before, they’d have gotten nada. That’s the situation they were in with me. I was very lukewarm about NRA until I started to get a growing sense that they might be something I wanted in on, but I still didn’t join until they found my sweet spot: $500 for life.

I’d probably not have joined at all on a yearly. I’d have just given more to GOAL.

You don’t know how many people there are out there like me. Probably several more than you realize, which NRA (presumably) has market researchers to tell them. They’re not doing this on a whim; it must pay off.
 
I got mine for $300 maybe 8 years ago.
I know for sure the $300 price was what i jumped on in 2013.

I don't understand the purpose.

When you pay for these memberships you actually receive nothing of value. Live vs Patron vs Benefactor doesn't actually change anything. You may get a hat?
So you're not really purchasing anything. So when the NRA "discounts" a particular membership level they are just reducing the price on something that has no value to begin with.
I think someone mentioned that this was a "good deal".

If I sold you a sticker for $5 but and offered another very similar sticker for $500...then discounted it to $300 is it really a good deal? It's still just a sticker.

On the flipside: the value the NRA receives is your contribution. That has actual value (hopefully) and the memberships are (or were) a representation of your contribution.
So if you actually want to contribute, then contribute. If a life membership costs $1k then give them $1k. Why give them $250 just so you can seem like a life member who gave $1k?.

Just very strange for people to try and get "deals" on them contributing to a cause.

It's like if I wanted to donate to St Jude's cancer research...why would you want to contribute $250 to their cause just so you can tell people that you are in the same group of people who actually contributed $1000?
You aren't doing $1000 worth of good for $250. You are just able to tell people you are.

At the end of the day maybe it all works out and the NRA gets more money. That's fine.

Its worth it to some, so they can vote on NRA leadership.
Its worth it to some because they can afford to make a bulk payment now, but may not be able to contribute in the future.
Its also worth it to some who shoot competitively, (such as High power), so they don't miss a renewal and have their member number change and lose the history.

Moreover, just because one gets a life membership, does not mean they will never contribute again.
 
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