Anyone here ever win something - Page 2

2 years ago my brother-in-law won a brand new $80,000 Porsche 911 in a raffle sponsored by Ronald McDonald House. He was "guilted" into buying the $100 raffle ticket by his boss. He still has the job and the car!

I won round trip airfare to anywhere in the continental US, but it kind of pales next to a new Porsche.

Ralph

Is it true that if you win a car you have to pay the TAXES on it?

Not in Canada, thank god. Any thing won in a lottery, contest, giveaway (which we by law don't have - everything needs a "skill testing question") is tax free.

However, any earnings, proceeds, etc from that prize are taxable. IE: interest, capital gains, etc.

Other than the standard Coke, and Candybar freebies of another Coke or Candybar, I did win a pair of Boxers from 7UP.

Yep, at least in the U.S.

I always wondered why the people giving these things away don't pay the taxes for you. I'd hate to win an expensive car only to get hit with a $10k+ bill for the taxes that I can't afford. They ought to give away the car, plus enough cash to cover the tax. Then the winner could actually keep the thing.

In Middle school I won a contest from the old Bantha Tracks Star Wars Fan Club newsletter. I was so excited because I got a letter informing me I had won and some of the prizes included actual props or models from the films. So I guess someone else got those. I received a box full of novelizations, comic books and patches that the fan club probably couldnt sell many of by 1985.

Another time I won Temptations tickets from an Oldies station by naming just 3 of the dead on the Sgt Peppers album cover. The concert was later cancelled.

I won 5 DVDs at ScOoTeRpAlOoZa.

--
Holadem - is that the right spelling?

I won a SVS Subwoofer in the giveaway here a year or so ago

Some of the things I've won:

• $20 on a Tri-State Megabucks ticket
• A Polaroid camera, a door prize at a graduation party
• A UHF/HDTV antenna, on the HT Cruise last fall (my friend won a QSC amplifier, now I wanted *that* prize!)

But the best thing I ever "won" is my wonderful wife, almost 6 years of wedded bliss!

Speaking of my wife, she has a knack for winning things at parties. Every party that has door prizes, she usually winds up coming home with something--usually candles, food, or a game. She also always seems to win the centerpiece of her table at parties.

Most cheesy thing I've won: at a team-building game day at work, there was a raffle for several of the items that were used in the games. I bought 5 tickets, and put 4 in a cup for a flag; and 1 in a cup marked "snowmen". I didn't know what the "snowmen" were at the time, but guess what I won in the raffle: not the flag I wanted, but the snowmen, which were these ugly blue and white things that we played a target practice game with (we were calling them "Mrs. Butterworth" because they were shaped like syrup bottles!)

I think he ended up paying between $25K - $30K in taxes. Still not bad for a $80K Porsche. He took out a loan and made payments.

He planned on driving it for a year and selling it to pay off the taxes. Then he drove it.

I used up all of my contest-winning karma when I was 10... Right before Return of the Jedi came out, Kenner toys held a drawing for several prizes. The entry forms were on the back of the Sunday comics. I had to beg for a stamp from my parents in order to enter. The 10 1st place prizes included one of each toy that Kenner made. There was also 1 grand prize, all the toys, plus a trip for 4 to the premier of the movie.

I was luck enough to win one of the 1st prizes, and received periodic shipments of toys all summer!

Back in '91, my brother won a radio contest to see Lenny Kravitz in concert. We had front row centre seats, then met him backstage after the show. Really cool and mellow guy. Didn't have any airs about him, although I wonder what he would be like today.

Let's see...

Beach Boys concert tickets
Three Elvis Presley DVDs from Digital Bits
$50 gift certificate from an ice cream joint (for creating an original sundae)

...and, I have two lottery tickets for today's drawing that I'm pretty hopeful about.


Jon

A copy of the video game Vigilante 8 and the strategy guide.
A Playstation 2.
A Labatt Blue ball cap.

Nothing lately though.

Monster RGB Cables(worth 250.00!!)...... from HDTVoice.com
and

XBOX and Project Gotham.......During Taco Bells XBOX Giveaway last year!!

otherwise I never win

I've won a few prizes over the years, but the best was about five years ago. A local radio station had a contest where they played a string of sound clips from movies. There were about 15 one-word clips played in quick succession, and you had to identify the actors in order. Every time somebody got it wrong they added $100 to the pot. I taped it and listened to it over and over. A couple of them were easy, but there were some pretty tough ones. The prize kept growing for a couple of weeks. Eventually I figured all of them out, confirming them against video tapes. I still remember a few of them: Jack Nicholson saying "bread" from Five Easy Pieces, Paul Newman saying "fire" from The Towering Inferno. Once I knew them, I still had to be the right caller. I missed it by one a couple of times. It eventually reached a point where every caller was getting all but about 3 or 4 of them. One morning they started giving clues. I was crushed, since now everybody was going to figure out the last few tough ones. All of my work for nothing. However, lady luck smiled on me that morning. I was the right caller the same morning they started with the clues, and I won about $8,000.

I've won a few things. The watch I'm wearing right now I won 5 years ago at a movie screening, I've won t-shirts, towels, golf balls, a boombox, DVDs and various other little things. I've won around $500 twice on Lotto drawings.

Haven't won anything major though.



I've always wondered that too, I guess it's just because they're cheap.

/Mike

They don't pay the taxes because that would cost them actual money. They're already getting the prizes either for no cost or on a cooperative basis, and they're not about to hand out money. Sad but true.

In 1981 I won tickets to see Gary Numan. The local radio station asked what is the deepest lake in the US. I answered Lake Tahoe; their answer was Crater Lake but I convinced them that the right answer was Tahoe (that's what my almanac said).

But other than the ubiquitous free fries in McDonalds promotions, nothing since.

My wife had decent contest Karma for a while last year. We had a flex pack for the BC Lions and went to the pre-season game, at the game she won tickets to the home opener. She entered the same contest the next game and won 100$ gift certificate from a nice Italian Jazz restaurant. Then she would win stuff at little events here and there but nothing big. I on the otherhand am ususally shut out of winnning anything.

I won a couple of things from gamespot.com when they first started and had those game drawings. I picked up a couple of PC games and a VF-1 3D headset that I promptly sold (didn't work with my video card). I have won Pepsi t-shirts from the vending machines a couple of times as well.

Of the hundred (if not thousands) of contests I've entered I've won a few small prizes (junk mainly). I did win one of the 12 DVD's of Christmas sets that The Big Picture gave away in like '98 or so. That was kind of cool.

In grade school I got a sticker under my milk carton. That meant I won a frisbee.

lol brad

That's good comedy, Greg. Thanks for the laugh.

when i went to see the jetsons movie (i know...i know...) they asked the audience what was the name of spacely sprockets' competion. embarassingly enough, i knew the answer so i got a free plastic cup thing-a-ma-jig.

i also called into a radio station a couple of times and won a bike rack (the kind you attach to the trunk) and a cd (big hits of the 80's).

that's about the sum of my free prize experiences.

A local radio station used to have what they called "Stump the crew". Bascially call in with a trivia question and if they get it wrong you win. I won some barbecue set thing from that...not a grill,but some utensils, meat, and an apron. I was probably 12.

I also won a bowling ball in a raffle when a couple pro bowlers came to a local boling alley...i was young then too...probably 14.

Havent goten anything else since.

Unless i count the time were a buddy and me got picked to help our with some SFX demo at MGM studios on a school trip. Not really winning, but it was pretty cool.

Just got an email from Digitally Obsessed. Won their contest for the Fireball XL5 & Stingray box sets.

Had to share. My family was like so what who'd want those shows. I'm like I do.

Believe it or not, I won a pretty big prize package from a local radio station (KIIS-FM, now KISS, national on XM Radio) when I was 14 (1987). I won two Porsche 944's (Red and Silver), $25,000 cash, and a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland to see Heart in concert.

Yes, you do have to pay taxes on winnings in the U.S. Because of my age at the time, my parents and I decided to take the cash alternative prize to the cars which was $24,000 apiece, bringing my cash prize to $73,000 plus the trip. I paid about $24,000 in taxes... $17,000 federal and $7,000 state and was in a higher tax bracket than my parents that year!

If I had a scanner, I would post some pics of the cars... we had to go to the Porsche dealer in Hollywood to sign some papers and they let me take pictures with both cars.

We totally enjoyed the money while it lasted. The trip to Scotland was for two, but I paid for my best friend to go and my mom's best friend to go. Hotel was covered, along with a chauffer-driven Rolls Royce to the concert. We spent a lot of the winnings though doing the typical touristy things like taking the train to London and staying 2 days/1 night there, visiting lots of castles etc. A few years later I took my dad to Peru to visit some friends of ours who are missionaries with Wycliffe. I also paid for my brother's vacation to New Zealand. I also tithed 10% of the winnings to my church.

All in all, we had a great time with the money and have no regrets.

1) I won Xbox from the Taco Bell give a way..
I was determined to hit as many TBs on Long Island and Queens.
No BS. Once I heard that Microsoft was giving away one system to
every taco bell location I made it my mission to get all friends and family
to give me their tickets. Every time I went myself I would beg for a bunch,
look on the floor and pick tickets out of the garbage if I saw them on top
I have to admit after I started and got a bunch, it then became an obsession.
I really never spent over 5 bucks on food, sometimes I would just get a
Cinnamon twist for $ .69 or something to that nature.
After entering on the website all the codes of the tickets and their were over 500 of them.
I won a system from the Hauppauge, NY Taco Bell. To think I traveled all the way
to Queens for TB to win it from one right around the block from my house at the time..
I could not believe it when I found out. I was great, I got the system with Project gothem racing
and a joystick. SWEET!


2) I won a few tickets to see the J. Geils Band. (WAIT IT GETS BETTER...)
(Yes, the same J. Geils Band who became mainstream due to tracks such as 'Freeze Frame' and 'Centerfold'.)
I was at local bar and answered a question that sounded something like this,
"What is the name of the song originally recorded by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers in 1964
and now the new single by Pearl Jam which is featured on the 1999 'No Boundaries' benefit comp
for victims of the Yugoslavian war?"

Last Kiss.

Well since their were so many of my friends banging down my door for a ticket to see J. Geils Band at Jones Beach
I wound up inviting my sister and her best friend at the time. (now my fiancé) We all had a great time at the show and
wound up at the Oak Beach Inn a very cool beach bar.(at the time)
The sort of a romantic setting that's just perfect to make a move on your older sisters friend for the first time,
after being a sport and bringing her to a free J. Geils concert.
And the rest is history............. We will be Married on 4-25-03

THANK YOU Heffrons and WBLI for the tickets, my sister for choosing the right friend to bring,
J. Geils Band for giving us a reason to get together and start our buzz, and thank you O.B.I.
for the dim lighting, good music and the coronas to finish my buzz which gave me the guts to hit on my future wife.
Also thanks to Taco Bell and Microsoft for helping me add those oh so difficult to lose pounds for my wedding...