Contests, Lotteries, Winning Things: How Have You Fared? [Archive]

PITTM

03-02-2007, 12:47 PM

In the coming 9 days I will find out if:
a) I will be going to the european cup final(soccer)
b) I will be going to the final four.

for a, my friend and I both entered the drawing and I estimate our chances being about 1 in 3 to win. for b, my friend was the 8th caller into the KNBR afternoon sports show on tuesday. They took a person for every day this week and today they will announce which of those 5 people wins the lottery and goes to the final four. I would be my friends guest.

This made me think back on things I have won in a contest. When I was 8, I won 3 blind melon cd's for winning some sam goody contest that I forgot I had entered. We used the CD's as frisbees. In high school, I entered a raffle for charity and won a small television. Probably my favorite story was when I lived in Santa Barbara and a bunch of my friends went on The Price is Right and one of them won a car, everyone in my dorm went nuts for a few weeks. Since our forum is obviously full of giant luckboxes and I love stories of triumph, I thought I would start a thread about things people have won in contests and how. commence the story telling.

Slow Play Ray

03-02-2007, 12:48 PM

[ QUOTE ]
When I was 8, I won 3 blind melon cd's for winning some sam goody contest that I forgot I had entered. We used the CD's as frisbees.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hate you for this. I hope you have since realized the error in your ways. If not, you must like hip-hop or whatever you kids call it nowadays.

BTW, I never win anything good.

Evan

03-02-2007, 12:52 PM

I won a pretty cool remote control car when I was 10 in a raffle at a school fair or something. I think it sold for $200, pretty big $$$$ for a 10 year old.

I think I've been on a cold streak since then.

Claunchy

03-02-2007, 01:05 PM

I was sitting at a Party Poker table where the BBJ hit (KKKK > 8888). Unfortunately I wasn't in the hand, but I still won ~10k.

I've also won free tickets to shows by calling into the radio a couple times, but that's relatively easy to do as long as the act isn't super-huge.

Patrick del Poker Grande

03-02-2007, 01:17 PM

The only things I've ever won like this in my life:

The local radio station came up and handed me a Styx (WTF?) cd when I was on the beach about 15 years ago. I think my response was something along the lines of "man, I'm twelve years old and what the [censored] is Styx?"

I won a drawing for a hockey stick at a tournament I was playing in. It was actually a decent stick and I used it for a while until I broke it.

...
Fast-forward about 12 years without winning a damned thing...
...

A $10 giftcard to Target or some [censored] for answering a trivia question at a company Christmas party.

Oh, and when I was a kid, my mom won us a trip to Disneyland through a local radio scavenger hunt.

My luck is such that I win much more than my fair share of raffle tickets at the company casino night party (NL hold'em, obv) and still never win anything in the drawing. Meanwhile, other people get drawn twice and/or they win and then their spouse wins too.

RIGGED

Patrick del Poker Grande

03-02-2007, 01:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The only things I've ever won like this in my life:

The local radio station came up and handed me a Styx (WTF?) cd when I was on the beach about 15 years ago. I think my response was something along the lines of "man, I'm twelve years old and what the [censored] is Styx?"

I won a drawing for a hockey stick at a tournament I was playing in. It was actually a decent stick and I used it for a while until I broke it.

...
Fast-forward about 12 years without winning a damned thing...
...

A $10 giftcard to Target or some [censored] for answering a trivia question at a company Christmas party.

Oh, and when I was a kid, my mom won us a trip to Disneyland through a local radio scavenger hunt.

My luck is such that I win much more than my fair share of raffle tickets at the company casino night party (NL hold'em, obv) and still never win anything in the drawing. Meanwhile, other people get drawn twice and/or they win and then their spouse wins too.

RIGGED

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh and here's another BEAT. My dad took me to the mall to hunt for easter eggs when I was a little kid. You're guaranteed to win something there, so it doesn't really count as a win. In the end, I actually count it as a loss, as one of the eggs I picked up was good for a 10-speed bike, but my dad made me put that one back and turn in the one that was good for a [censored] He-Man coloring book instead. Thanks, Dad - I'm still bitter.

PITTM

03-02-2007, 01:25 PM

[ QUOTE ]

I hate you for this. I hope you have since realized the error in your ways. If not, you must like hip-hop or whatever you kids call it nowadays.

[/ QUOTE ]

last 3 cd's i listened to:
-steve winwood-back in the high life
-the guess who-best of
-crosby, still and nash-s/t

Dids

03-02-2007, 01:37 PM

When I was in 3rd grade I entered the science fair. I, and my family had no idea this was a competition, we just thought it was like "do a project, display it". My dad and I did a ton of work on this train thingy (made from cardboard, with a mountain and everything). I ended up taking one of the three blue ribbons at the fair. Winning something, when you didn't realize it was even a competition, is awesome.

Beyond that, nothing. I don't enter radio drawings and what not.

(the next year I entered a project on acid rain, my two best friends thought I was insane, because they didn't realize it was real, since they'd only heard about it through transformers).

Borodog

03-02-2007, 01:38 PM

A neon green T shirt with "BUD: The King of Beers" written on the front in hot pink lettering, for having Surf 107 play my "Perfect Album Side" on air in high school. Said perfect album side included:

- Fantasy Girl, 38 Special
- Whadda You Want From Me, Billy Squier
- Fool in the Rain, Led Zeppelin
- The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love), Journey
- Talk to You Later, The Tubes

A true apex.

XXXNoahXXX

03-02-2007, 01:50 PM

In terms of no skill winnings:

Won a free backpack stuffed full of pens, markers, etc. every year of elementary school. The donut place down the street used to give away like 10 backpacks full of stuff right before school started. My brother and I always stuffed the ballot box with like 1000 entries. It was always comical when we got called first to win and then they proceeded to keep pulling us again and again and just looking at and then discarding the sheet.

My luck elsewhere has been awful. I have never won on a scratch ticket in my life. Sure I've won the typical get your money back or maybe double, biggest win ever was $25 on a $5 ticket. Between occasional purchases and the hundreds that I have gotten on holidays and birthdays I estimate I have received upwards of $5000 in scratch tickets, and have not even won a measly $100.

This will all chance tonight at 11pm when I win MegaMillions. If I randomly stop posting on 2+2 and never return, you can assume that I have won.

Slow Play Ray

03-02-2007, 02:00 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I hate you for this. I hope you have since realized the error in your ways. If not, you must like hip-hop or whatever you kids call it nowadays.

[/ QUOTE ]

last 3 cd's i listened to:
-steve winwood-back in the high life
-the guess who-best of
-crosby, still and nash-s/t

[/ QUOTE ]

in that case, i highly recommend you revisit blind melon. they were really an awesome band, all 3 cds are excellent.

JordanIB

03-02-2007, 02:54 PM

Won WFAN's Super Bowl trivia for a trip for 2 -- tickets, airfare, hotel, car, plus a few other things -- to Super Bowl XXXV when my Giants played the Ravens. Heck, there's probably a handful of folks here who heard it.

Contest is a trivia game where contestants have to answer 4 trivia questions (and sometimes identify audio clips...that was actually my #4 that sent me) of increasing difficulty.

Went with my brother. Trip was a lot of fun, game result not so good. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've won some other random stuff from the station too. Croton Watch, some cash once, tickets, etc.

Will update tomorrow when I win Mega Millions.

7ontheline

03-02-2007, 02:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
In the end, I actually count it as a loss, as one of the eggs I picked up was good for a 10-speed bike, but my dad made me put that one back and turn in the one that was good for a [censored] He-Man coloring book instead. Thanks, Dad - I'm still bitter.

[/ QUOTE ]

WTF?!? Why the hell would your dad do that? That's just evil. Or were the eggs' prizes unknown until you turned them in?

Patrick del Poker Grande

03-02-2007, 03:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In the end, I actually count it as a loss, as one of the eggs I picked up was good for a 10-speed bike, but my dad made me put that one back and turn in the one that was good for a [censored] He-Man coloring book instead. Thanks, Dad - I'm still bitter.

[/ QUOTE ]

WTF?!? Why the hell would your dad do that? That's just evil. Or were the eggs' prizes unknown until you turned them in?

[/ QUOTE ]
No, we knew exactly what the prizes were before we turned them in. I can only guess that he didn't think I was big enough for a 10-speed bike yet and didn't want to deal with it.

Yeti

03-02-2007, 03:07 PM

when shaq played for the magic i won some cool shaq basketball boots. can't find a pic on google. they were not the awesome zebra ones but he did wear them in a few games.

Borodog

03-02-2007, 03:12 PM

I also won a contest for "The Triangle's Top Talker," on the local AM talk station, which is 680 WPTF. The gimmick was they had an answering machine set up, you call in to the number and leave a 30 second "audition", which they would play the best of/worst of on the air during the afternoon show. Then they chose the top 6 to come into the studio and do a 10 minute segment live on air during the afternoon show, with a judging panel made up of the regular host and some frequent guests.

I won the whole shebang, and got to do my own show that Saturday afternoon. Was a pretty fun experience.

PITTM

03-02-2007, 03:26 PM

also, this was a thinly veiled "everyone listen to KNBR 650 from 4-7 today and hope "brandon" wins. and if he does, pittm will be happy.

TheMetetron

03-02-2007, 03:27 PM

I'm not sure why this is in the El D forum.

When I used to work at a big major market radio station I got a ton of free promotional [censored] we were supposed to be giving out. Things I got:

- I don't think I ever paid for a single movie in the years I worked there, either going to the premieres or using AMC certs we got.

- I never had to pay for vinyl (I was a DJ) getting a ton of promo records that was 90% garbage and 10% good stuff. I remember getting a record, thinking it was awesome, then hearing it on the radio 9 months later when it finally got big. Was sort of weird.

- Tons of stupid promotional t-shirts that were good for working out. The best were actually the Glitter tube tops that the girls used to love. Thank god we gave that [censored] out before the movie came out.

- Went to a ton of free concerts (pretty much anything we wanted). For some reason to decided to stick around for an N'Sync concert one time after doing some promo work beforehand and upgraded some slutty high school girls nosebleed seats to backstage passes. Sexy time ensued.

- I remember the period when Mountain Dew code red came out. We were giving away free 20oz bottle coupons, I believe I kept somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-500 of them and stocked my house. Also on the food note was the free Wendy's combo meal certificates. Back in the poor days these were [censored] incredible.

Other than that, I don't think I've ever really won much. Some $200 scratcher winners when I was like 16 were probably the biggest things. Never really bothered with contests besides that.

guids

03-02-2007, 03:29 PM

Man, now that I think about it, I dont believe I have ever won any type of random drawing/lottery type stuff, other than the occasional scratcher ticket. While we are on the subject, are any of you guys heavily into that "scene" and fill out tons of stuff to try to win things? I thought about spending an hour a day entering contests and such, anyone have any tutorials/primers?

TheMetetron

03-02-2007, 03:31 PM

guids,

I'll give you a tip for radio contests. Be super excited when they answer the phone no matter what. Start asking if you won, tell them how much you want it, etc. Caller "20" or whatever is a sham and it is really caller "first person who sounds like they would make for good radio". Be that person.

niss

03-02-2007, 03:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Won WFAN's Super Bowl trivia for a trip for 2 -- tickets, airfare, hotel, car, plus a few other things -- to Super Bowl XXXV when my Giants played the Ravens. Heck, there's probably a handful of folks here who heard it.

Contest is a trivia game where contestants have to answer 4 trivia questions (and sometimes identify audio clips...that was actually my #4 that sent me) of increasing difficulty.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hilarious ... I won this for the Giants/Bills. Except that the prize allowed us to go to Tampa any weekend but for the Super Bowl, despite the fact that it was called the "Giants Road to the Super Bowl" contest.

Waterfall

03-02-2007, 03:32 PM

I won a $50 gas card by swiping my card at Foxwoots

I dont have a car though

jjp

03-02-2007, 03:32 PM

I won a raffle at work where I won a kids driveable Hummer. I gave it to me 5 year old son a week later for his birthday - he loves it.

Last night I went to the Kings-Ducks hockey game with center ice tickets I won in a golf raffle.

Saturday I'm going to win $283M in the mega millions lottery.

RoundGuy

03-02-2007, 03:38 PM

In the summer of 1985 or 86 I went to my first horse track at Aksarben in Omaha. The night before, in our hotel room, three friends and I all figured out our $2 Pick Six bets for the next day. I wrote up 10 bets using the various expert picks in the newspaper.

Next day, I was the only one in the running after the 4th race. I won the 5th race, and it got intense. Still remember my horse's name in the 6th -- Rinaldo. He was in 2nd the entire race, and pulled it out on the home stretch -- $22,000.

The beat? The Pick Six was progressive. It kept building each day until someone won it. The day before a guy won it for over one million....

rwesty

03-02-2007, 03:50 PM

If you combine my results from Keno (+200), slot machines(-50), lottery(-100), horse racing(-50) and pull tabs(+150) I am up money. Also up considerably more in blackjack and poker but those don't count.

PanchoVilla

03-02-2007, 03:56 PM

When I was like 8 I won a grocery store drawing for the Campbell's soup kid watch. First thing I remember winning. Then my stupid neighbor won the f'ing pennzoil race car go-cart. At least I got to drive it a couple times.

As a broke ass college student my freshmen year they had this bingo game they played at halftime at basketball games. I won about ~350 since I split it with some other guy who hit bingo on the same number as I did.

My best win though was deciding to back this guy who used to answer a lot of questions on 2+2 a few years back. He always posted these really good detailed answers, so when he posted a backing proposal I took a shot, I mean he is a lawyer so he probably isn't trying to run off with my $500.

My wife is sure glad I did too. Raymer's win paid for my wedding and most of my wife's car.

Pancho

bustedchucks

03-02-2007, 04:19 PM

my local college radio is really exploitable, so i've won tons and tons of [censored] from them. warped tour the first five years of its existence, prolly like 40 concerts, 30 or so cd's, a guitar, laser tag- listeners vs staff(we destroyed them) and lots of other random crap.

what it is is if they say caller 30 wins, you call right away again and again and gauge how fast they are going and count along with them to match thier speed. they actually do count though, so for one contest you can be caller 6,13,24,and 30. bigger prizes get higher numbers- caller 75 or watev, but that means you have more times to sync up with thier answering and get yourself really close.

also, it's not just my mad skills that win me things, it's a college station with a weakish signal so you're really not facing much competition at 9:15 on a tuesday morning.

JordanIB

03-02-2007, 05:25 PM

[ QUOTE ]
guids,

I'll give you a tip for radio contests. Be super excited when they answer the phone no matter what. Start asking if you won, tell them how much you want it, etc. Caller "20" or whatever is a sham and it is really caller "first person who sounds like they would make for good radio". Be that person.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why do you say that?

I've called in for these types before, on major New York stations, both AM and FM, only to hear "Caller 7. [click]" when they were looking for caller 20 or whatever. You don't even have a chance to talk. I've even been told "Caller 94. [click]" before when they were looking for something in the hundreds.

M2d

03-02-2007, 05:28 PM

at work one year, i won a coupon for a complete thanksgiving turkey dinner. it was the day before thanksgiving, so i was "wtf???, who doesn't have their TG plans already made?" no one at work wanted/needed it, so i ended up donating at a church in the neighborhood.

a couple of years ago, the entire section i was sitting in at a warriors game won free haircut coupons and pizza coupons.

i just got a table share of a 94K bad beat two days ago at AJ's.

TheMetetron

03-02-2007, 05:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
guids,

I'll give you a tip for radio contests. Be super excited when they answer the phone no matter what. Start asking if you won, tell them how much you want it, etc. Caller "20" or whatever is a sham and it is really caller "first person who sounds like they would make for good radio". Be that person.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why do you say that?

I've called in for these types before, on major New York stations, both AM and FM, only to hear "Caller 7. [click]" when they were looking for caller 20 or whatever. You don't even have a chance to talk. I've even been told "Caller 94. [click]" before when they were looking for something in the hundreds.

[/ QUOTE ]

I say that because that is how we and many other radio stations worked. Usually it would go "'Name of Radio Station', hello?" followed by listening to what they said. If they sounded interesting we'd talk for a bit then announce them as the winner or pass onto someone else.

Sometimes, the on air people would just do it the real way or do it the real way for a while then switch to just grabbing someone that they liked as they got close to the right number. It really depends. But sounding like you would make for good radio will increase your chances by a lot because I'd guess a very significant portion of radio winners are chosen in this manner. It obviously varies from station to station and market to market, but generally it is true.

niss

03-02-2007, 05:42 PM

And then there was the time when I used to go to Knicks' games (when they were good and the NBA didn't blow), I think '93. Hold the other team under 85 and get free Pizza Hut. So with a few seconds left in a blowout and the entire, sold-out MSG chanting "pizza pizza" (which they had been doing for the last few minutes of the game in an awesome display), some yutz on the Bucks (I think) banks in a 3 pointer at the buzzer to get the Bucks to 86, we get screwed out of free pizza, and the crowd boos the Knicks off the court.

That was the end of the promotion.

El Diablo

03-02-2007, 05:52 PM

PITTM,

When I was in high school, I was a huge music fan. Every Sunday afternoon, the rock radio station had a trivia call-in thing for tickets for about five upcoming shows. The first couple of weeks I was the first correct caller on two different items. The third week they changed rules so you could only win one. That week, I got the first question, then they did one for a show I liked more, so I won that one. The next week I called in, won the first one, and they just asked me what I'd like tickets for. That ran for a summer, was great. Of course, this was long before Google, when knowing stuff actually made a difference in contests like this.

El Diablo

03-02-2007, 05:58 PM

PITTM,

As for raffles/scratchoffs/lotteries, whatever other game of chance. I am pretty much 0 for a million.

Runkmud

03-02-2007, 06:48 PM

When I was like 11 or 12 I entered a contest at Benihana, 1st prize was a trip to Tokyo, 2nd prize was a trip to San Fran, 3rd was a set of signed prints by Benny Kingman or someone. Of course I won 3rd, however, I liked the prints and thought they were pretty cool and probably valuable. Years later while glancing through the Guiness Book of World records, I find that he holds the record for signing the most prints.

I did win $7800 on a slot machine once.

KingMedicine

03-02-2007, 06:48 PM

when i was young (11-17) i used to do a TON of radio contests. i saw a special when i was 11 on TV about this dude who did radio contests for a living and i wanted to be that guy. so, i got my parents to let me get my own phone line (back in 1986 when i was 11) and had them get me a super fast dialing phone (back then they were pretty hard to find).
i made a chart of all the radio stations - didnt matter what type of music - and i made a running list of all the contests they had going and which days, etc.
so i won a bunch of [censored] i never picked up (tickets to concerts and records and [censored] like that) and i won 100$ a ton of time that they would mail to me, etc. 100$ to an 11 or 12 year in 1987 was a TON of money.

i remember when i was 13 there was a station that was doing a "thousand dollar thursday" promotion where from 8am-5pm on thursdays theyd give away 1000$ an hour. somehow i got out of school (feigning sickness i think) on the first thursday they were doing this so that i could try to win the 1k. my dad happened to be home that day too. so i call the very first hour and WIN!! amazing. i was soooo excited. 1000 was like a million to me - a totally unfathomable amount of money. so im talking to the DJ and he's getting my info and he says, "ma'am, how old are you" (im a guy). my voice hadnt changed yet apparently. i said, "im a boy and im 13 years old" with great pride. then the guy gets this kinda sad sound to his voice and said, "im sorry, but you have to be 18 to win this contest." being the fast-thinker i was, before years of alcohol and pill abuse riddled me mentally retarded, i said, "oh, wait, ill put my dad on teh phone and you can just give him my prize." but, no dice. the bastard said that he has to award the prize to whoever answers the line when he picks up the winner's call. so, after a while of arguing with him i figured out i wasnt going to win.
i started crying and felt miserable.
i told my parents and then i came up with a plan: next week (or in one of the 3 remaining weeks of this contest), i was going to stay home from school again and i was going to win again, only this time i was going to give them my mom's name and tell them that i was her. my parents knew how upset i was and said that theyd give me one shot to pull this off on the following thursday.
so i got all the info id need from my mom and wrote it down (ssn, dl number, etc). the next week, i think in the 3pm hour, i won again, gave them my mom's name. i called my mom at work right after i hung up the phone and she popped on her radio at work and heard me, as her, on the radio winning the 1k. a week later we picked up the check and everything worked out fine.

besides winning tons and tons of [censored] from radio contests, i also used to do this call-in cable tv sports trivia show called Time Out for Trivia. (i posted about my TOFT experiences on 2+2 a couple years ago if you really want to read about it.) from them, i won an exercise bike, a metal detector, 300$ of tultex sweats (which is like 15 sets), some 100$ baseball card book and a few things im probably forgetting.

ive never won any drawings or anything on the lottery, although i rarely ever bought tickets or entered drawings.

(this turned out to be ridiculously long, sorry.)

PITTM

03-02-2007, 06:52 PM

KM,

wow, you single-handedly made me glad i started this thread.

niss

03-02-2007, 07:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
besides winning tons and tons of [censored] from radio contests, i also used to do this call-in cable tv sports trivia show called Time Out for Trivia. (i posted about my TOFT experiences on 2+2 a couple years ago if you really want to read about it.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Phenomenal. Loved that show. Todd Donoho ruled.

bellytimber

03-02-2007, 07:52 PM

When I was in eighth grade our school raised money to combat heart disease through one of those old Jump Rope For Heart promotions. For a little extra incentive, you would get entries in a raffle based on how much money you had raised.

When it came time for the raffle drawing, I had to go in front of the school and pick out the winning ticket. So I walked up there and plunged my hand in this big bin that was filled with maybe two thousand tickets, and of course I somehow grabbed my own ticket--the only one I had earned.

Since it was a private school full of apprentice paranoid supernerds, I was immediately accused of somehow tearing my ticket, freezing my ticket, or surreptitiously bringing up a ticket with me. This was SOP for a school whose mascot was the Seahorses. But Laurent, I swear to you Laurent that I did not cheat.

My prize was to standing broad jump down the length of a series of one dollar bills that had been taped together. I had to do it right then, I don't remember exactly how many I cleared, but I have the quads of a kangaroo so I probably made like $19,200.

El Diablo

03-02-2007, 09:24 PM

belly,

"freezing my ticket"

I'm pretty sure that was in an Encylopedia Brown.

hobbes9324

03-02-2007, 09:57 PM

My luck is about average, but I married to a total luck-box, which is almost as good as being lucky yourself.

Every year we go to two or three charity functions at which pretty good prizes (two round trip tickets anywhere AA flies, trip to hawaii, etc.) are drawn for. She's won at least once every year for the last five.

Over the last 7 years she's AHEAD at video poker games - by about $18000, near as I can figure - she hit two royal flushes at the Mirage inside of two hours.

So, if you can't be lucky yourself, marry a lucky woman....

MM MD

XXXNoahXXX

03-02-2007, 10:06 PM

[ QUOTE ]
belly,

"freezing my ticket"

I'm pretty sure that was in an Encylopedia Brown.

[/ QUOTE ]

El D,

I'm pretty sure Stern and the Knicks did this in the 1985 NBA draft.

El Diablo

03-02-2007, 10:07 PM

XXX,

You can learn a lot of cool tricks from Encyclopedia Brown.

guids

03-02-2007, 10:10 PM

That along with the great brain my two favorite childrens book series, have you ever seen the much coveted Encyclopedia Brown Cookbook? Its awesome.

Monday morning, i will do a bunch of research on being a "professional" contest entry person, and post a TR in this thread, Im hoping that maybe taking a couple hours a week, it will be worth it.

XXXNoahXXX

03-02-2007, 10:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
XXX,

You can learn a lot of cool tricks from Encyclopedia Brown.

[/ QUOTE ]

El D,

Brown outsmarting Bugs Meany was inspiring to nerds everywhere.

centaurmyth

03-02-2007, 11:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
In the coming 9 days I will find out if:
a) I will be going to the european cup final(soccer)

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you enter the UEFA ticket lottery and then plan to fly to Greece? If so, how are you calculating your odds? If not, whats the contest? Either way, take it down. I have had this pic of Olympic Stadium on my desktop as motivation to produce. Barca, ftw. I'll be the one on top of the stadium wall waving the flag in the Deco jersey.

oh, and winning things? x-post (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=exchange&Number=9354735&S earchpage=1&Main=9349033&Words=+centaurmyth&topic= &Search=true#Post9354735)

http://www.theodora.com/wfb/photos/greece/athens_olympic_stadium_greece_2.jpg

russellmj

03-03-2007, 12:01 AM

When I was ten I bought a raffle ticket at my mom's work for a Thanksgiving turkey and hit. It was good.

When I was older and just getting out on my own, I gave some people that were less fortunate than me all my spare money at Thanksgiving. Something like $150. I think I was making around $5 an hour then. I told myself I would figure out how to get food for the next week. A few days later I got a note on my door to call the office. They told me they'd had a drawing for a Thanksgiving turkey and the person who won didn't want it. The next name they drew was mine. It was gigantic. It fed me and my wiener dog for at least a week.

Went to a music store give away day. I won the last drawing for this hip little cassette player that you could plug your guitar into and play with the tape. It even let you slow down the tape to practice your chops and whatnot. Even had effects. One of my better wins.

I won Medal of Honor from Alienware computers. Online contest. Gave it to a friend.

Found a $100 bill on the ground.

Recently won a contest for someone else. Regional head sent out a question with a recent financial statement. Something to the effect of, "why is XX,XXX number significant"? My boss asks me what it could possibly mean. I told him it's probably what our zone was up in leverage the prior year. He checked the books and I was right. He submitted the answer and kept the $50 gift card that was the prize.

BigBuffet

03-03-2007, 11:38 PM

In 1970 I won the grand prize at the Minneapolis winter sports and camping show. It was a Toro Pug.

I filled out entry blanks for thirty minutes non stop, so I had to win something...

Turns out that second place was 2 snowmobiles which we would have rather had.

They called me at 11:30PM the night of the drawing. I was 10, so my mom woke me up saying I had a phone call. The lady said I won a "pug". I said I already have a dog. She explained what I had won.

I have also won a pool table and a color tv over the years.

Burdzthewurd

03-04-2007, 12:26 AM

I won a coloring contest at a local supermarket when I was 7 and got 12 gallons of ice cream (1 per month)

I won a glow-in-the-dark SNICK t-shirt when I was 8, I won some matching game live during SNICK

Found Grey M&Ms during that promotion in 1997 and got 125 free bags of M&Ms

Finally, won a $2600 jackpot at the Taj a few years ago after a bad day of poker, that was nice.

I generally feel bad winning things based on luck, I feel as thought I should have earned it (this goes for poker too).

Event Duality

03-04-2007, 12:49 AM

The biggest thing I can remember is winning the Xbox (the original, not 360) from my local Taco Bell when they were giving away an Xbox from every location. You had to enter the number online, and I am pretty sure most people were too lazy to complete that step. I completed it, about a hundred times, and ended up winning the Xbox bundle. I was stoked.

BigBuffet

03-04-2007, 01:28 AM

That reminds me. I won an Ipod last year at the Minnesota State Fair. The local Fox affiliate was giving away one per hour.

I was going to stuff the box, but the girls at the booth had a tighter reign on the entry slips than a junk yard dog with a new steak bone. So I entered one slip and one the first one of that day.

Gave it to my son for his birthday /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

tomdemaine

03-04-2007, 11:54 AM

http://www.theprizefinder.com

This is for the UK but I'm sure there's a US version.

Elevens

03-04-2007, 03:31 PM

I actually recently won a all expense paid trip to Cancun for four nights by being the 10,0059th "texter" to a local radio station. I have yet to take it, but my wife and I are trying to set a date now.

Cornell Fiji

03-05-2007, 01:40 AM

When I was 12 years old Umbro held a promotion in America where contestants had to mail in a videotaped home made Umbro commercial.

The winners of the contest received two tickets to the Euro96 soccer tournament and a free ten day trip to England.

I knew someone who had something to do with the promotion. Umbro planned on picking three winners but with two weeks left before the drawing they only had two entries.

I went to a local soccer field with my sister (who was 15 at the time) and we filmed a 30 second commercial.

Umbro ended up only having 4 people the contest and there was no way that they weren't going to pick the two kids who sent in a video. Ship the free trip to England.

Marc H

03-05-2007, 05:08 PM

I've won a bunch of stuff, predominantly through radio call-in contests ...

Biggest score would be a week's trip (from the USA) to Sydney, Australia. Winners got to see an Alanis Morisette show and meet the opening act (Frente) backstage, but the rest of the week was your own. Won by being the 7th caller when they announced. They were very careful to remind callers that you need a passport to travel to Australia. The station took a weekend's worth of hourly winners (~50) and picked a name Monday morning. Which wasn't MY name ...

... BUT that person didn't have a passport!
So they drew again and I came up lucky. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Also won a trip for a weekend in Florida during Spring Training one year; probably 10 or so sets of concert tickets, including front row seats twice; baseball, basketball, and hockey game tickets; and some minor swag.

I've also appeared as a contestant on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire (back in the good old days of the show, March 2000) but that was a combination of skill and luck. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

PITTM

03-05-2007, 06:32 PM

update: lost final 4 contest. hopefully that gives me extra sklansky bux for the Champions League Final Lottery.

kipin

03-05-2007, 07:45 PM

I think this thread is pretty contentless, but its still fun to brag about what I have won.

Back in highschool I won a sweet hat after finding a lucky bottle cap under the lid of some Citra.

A couple years ago I answered a product survey conducted by HBO and won first prize which was my choice of any HBO Series DVD. I picked Band of Brothers.

Other than that I havn't really won much, although I don't really go looking for contests to enter.

danlux

03-05-2007, 07:49 PM

Last month I bought a single $1 ticket that had 6 separate ways to win. I won $25, $25, $10, $5, $5, and $2. The odds of winning $25 by itself was 1 in 400. Even before this I was up lifetime in scratch offs.

Kost

03-06-2007, 07:02 PM

5 years ago I won a Paper, Scissors, Rock contest with more than 60 entrants. Icecream in 1st.

When I was seven I won a "find-five-things-that-are-wrong" contest in a magazine. 1st price: a Milli Vanilli cassette

IggyWH

03-06-2007, 07:17 PM

I was sitting in holiday traffic one day driving home from work when I heard a commercial on the radio talking about if you see a blue cross/blue shield van, go on the website and tell us where to be entered into a contest. I look over to my left and in Home Depot parking lot was the van they were talking about. When I got home, I went on the website and entered. I only entered it because grand prize was a blue PT Cruiser. This was when they had first came out and blue was not an available color.

A couple months later, I got an email saying I had won 2nd place. I almost deleted the email although when I saw it, I figured I had won a t-shirt or something lame like that. Turns out I won a $1000 gift certificate to Amazon.com. I was pissed because I was like "What am I gonna do with $1000 worth of books?" I then looked at the website and found out they sold a lot more than books. Ended up buying myself a new computer.

==============

When I was real young, I was selected from a TV contest to participate in a Sega Challenge. 10 of us went to the local mall and played Sonic Spinball with the highest score taking home the grand prize. I took 2nd for a free year of the Sega Channel. First place got the Sega Channel for a year and a 32X, if you guys remember what they are.

That's about it for me.