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It was illegal, and I still won't take part if cash is leaving my hands for a game of chance. The only way I'd pay money is to buy one outright.

The last time I participated in gambling was probably twenty years ago, when I asked my dad about some pull-tab tickets I saw at a Septemberfest (I think Omaha preferred September because October was usually too cold to have a big outdoor party). I asked if I could play one, and he said, "Sure", and bought one for a quarter. Hoping to win $150, I opened the ticket, which won only 25¢. "Cool, I won my money back!" Then Dad explained that the point was to trade this one for another, and hope that the next one was a winner. Ok, that's fine, so I pulled a new one, and it won nothing.

"What, that's it?" I ask. "Yup, that's it," says Dad. Well, that was a waste of my time, and I've never done anything resembling gambling since then.

You could offer it for rent, a couple of weeks for $5 apiece or a month for $10 (everyone pays up front, though). Priority list placement costs an extra $5. Some of us might not get our turn for a couple of years, but so what? We'd each get to eventually see what the fuss is all about, you'd get some cash to take your honey for a bender -- and you'd eventually get the piece back! If one of us finds it to be a real revolution in our playing, we can go buy our own; if not, we'll have found out pretty cheaply.

You'd just need to box it up with a list and send it to the first name on the list. Each person, upon receiving the MP, gets to try it out then send it on (or hand it off) to the next name on the list (after verifying the address is still good).

If you do this, you ought to let people specify who they see regularly. Then you could order the list so that they can just hand off the MP instead of having to mail it.
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Joe Baker, who likes this scheme better anyway, 'cause he will definitely get something for his money.

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Actually, I like this idea so much, I wonder if it might not be worthwhile to try the same thing with a bunch of other mouthpieces people have gathering dust. Send them out on "tours" for a year or so, charging a fee that is commensurate with the cost of the mouthpiece, then inviting comment on the particular mouthpiece. So there'd be long-running threads on all these mouthpieces, including comments from anyone who tries them - but for sure from the folks who have paid for the tour.