Anyone here ever win something (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Kleist]

When the commercial internet first got going, I won 2 games, Suikoden and Mechwarrior 2 for PSX. The same week I won $60 on scratch off lottery tickets

I'm afraid that was the end of my luck

 

[Randall Dorr]

I've won eleven DVDs from five different contests.

 

[Roberto Carlo]

More than 20 years ago, MTV had a Devo contest. I forget what first prize was. What I do remember was being at home, eating dinner with my then-girlfriend when someone knocked on the door. It was UPS with a package for me from MTV. It contained a replica of the hat and outfit the band played the "Whip It" video, complete with whip and the band's albums. To this day, it's the only thing I've ever one -- actually I won the "English Patient" DVD from the Digital Bits, now that I remember it -- and I don't recall entering it. Then again, I was probably stoned when I did.

 

[ThomasC]

I just won a Tuck Everlasting DVD from digitallyOBSESSED!!! WOOHOO!!!

...and no, I hardly win any of the contests that I enter.

 

[Scott Leopold]

Back in grade school I won a drawing for an Easter Basket, which I still have to this day.

At work, we used to do all the radio call-in contests. Most of them were caller number x, but some were trivia contests. While I didn't win it for myself, they were giving away a KISS CD set. The question was you had to name the actual name of The Pina Colada Song. It took us over 15 minutes to get through, but I was the first person to call in who knew it (gave the CD's to a coworker). I also helped others win by knowing the name of the band Head East ("who sang 'Never Been Any Reason'"), and the planet Luke Skywalker came from. For myself, I was driving along flipping through the channels one day, and came across the local oldies staion. They were giving away tickets to a local dinner theater presentation of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," and gift certificates to a local sandwich place. The question was, name all 4 Aliens movies. The contest had been going on for over 25 minutes, and the DJ was about to end the contest since nobody had known the answer. I called in and won.

My brother is very competitive. He used to enter a football poll every week, but never brought me an entry form. He'd been in the same poll for about 3 years, and had never won. The first time I entered, I won $50. He never brought me an entry form after that. He also used to like to play instant lottery tickets. He seldom won, and it was never more than $5. I was never into it, but he played all the time. We were leaving the grocery store together one day, and he stopped to buy some. The whole time he kept telling me to buy some. He was about to buy one last one, and I finally gave in, and bought what would have been his next ticket. I won $100. A month or two later, the exact same thing happened, but this time I only won $88. He never played around me again.

Several years ago, I won a 25" TV at a work picnic. I worked that day, and didn't even buy a raffle ticket, and won the grand prize. They automatically entered everyone who had to work and couldn't go to the picnic.

When I was waiting tables, we'd have contests among the wait staff to see who could sell the most of some desert, drink, or whatever. The first time we did it, the prize was dinner for two and a pair of earrings. I had about $100 more in sales than my closest competition. However, since it was a "lady's" prize, they gave it to her instead. Our next contest was to see who could sell the most of a brand of Belgian Lambic beers (fruit flavored beers) we were phasing out. We'd had 7 cases of the stuff for a couple months, and had only sold 5 or 6 bottles. They cost $8-10 per bottle, so they were a hard sell. I sold so many during the contest period we had to reorder twice. As some of the waitresses began to realize they weren't going to win, they gave their totals to the head waitress. After 5 waitresses had given her their totals, she still had less than half my sales. The prize was an amber neclace, worth about $50. Once again, since it was a lady's prize, they decided to give it to the runner up instead. The next contest was to see who could sell the most Shamrocks for MD. I sold 1 just because my mother came in and insisted on buying one from me.

I also won online contests at a Star Wars site twice, but had the prize rescinded because the guy who ran the site didn't like me.

One of my most enjoyable wins came at a church fish fry. The grand prize was a convection oven, some dinnerware, and about $200 worth of booze and beer, but no Jack Daniels. The runner up prize was a fifth of Jack Daniels and two tickets to the next fish fry. The lady who won the grand prize didn't belong to the church, and couldn't have cared less about winning. I won the runner up prize, and celebrated like I'd just won $1 million. My friend and I finished off most of the bottle while walking back to his grandmother's house. It was a blast!

 

[Scott Wong]

I actually just won Inspector Gadget 2 on DVD from a local radio station. I was caller #8. I seem to be pretty lucky with the whole fast finger dialing thing. Works for me even better than redial! In the past, I've won several sets of concert tickets.... Huey Lewis & the News at the local State Fair two years ago... Counting Crows... Wallflowers... Bush (ummm, the band) as well as Smashing Pumpkins.

Scott.

 

[Greg_Y]

.

 

[Adil M]

I feel bad for people who don't win things, but shoot...
that's why we steal.
It's all about what comes around goes around. Now if only I knew where Scott lived...

 

[Ryan Wright]

In college I used to have a knack for winning radio contests- you know, being a certain numbered caller.

Heh, heh. It was always "caller number 9" when I was growing up. Running a local BBS, I had 8 phone lines in my bedroom. I wrote a script to activate the speakers on the modems and dial the station's number on all 8 lines simultaneously. Won more than my fair share of hats, bumper stickers, CDs, etc.

No, the real people who win these contests are the cheaters. When I was in middle school, Blockbuster Video opened their first store here. They had plenty of great prizes. My father and I smuggled entire pads full of entry forms out of the store every time we rented there - it didn't say "one entry per person". We'd then sit at home and spend hours filling them out, one at a time. We won one of the top few prizes, "free rentals for an entire year."

We rented everything. At any given time we had a dozen items checked out, most of them video games for me. My friends and I were all over their (at the time, extensive) video game collection. We also used it to get free food: At one time, we were near the store and they had a promotion where you would get a free box of Girl Scout cookies for every 3 video rentals. We were hungry, so we went in and promptly "rented" a dozen titles. Consumed the 4 boxes of cookies on the way home and played video games all night long. All for free.

Incidentally, my parents became good friends with the manager of the store and they still talk to this day.

Unfortunately, 4 or 5 months into it, the store changed management in a big way. Nearly everyone was fired and everything down there changed. We went in one day to rent several more titles and were told "no". Apparently, the new management had "found some free rental tickets in the safe". Our "one year of free rentals" was only supposed to be a pack of 52 free rentals (one per week), and we were not so politely informed that we had already used up "several dozen times" our "allotment".

We haven't spent a penny with Blockbuster since.

 

[Mark C Sherman]

I won My Whole Klipsch Speaker set up when i worked at tweeter. There was a contest in the store that no one knew about.Klipsch wanted to see who sold product because of the product and not what we could win.

I got a pair of RF3's An RC3 Center and RS3 rears. all for selling speakers.



Plus I won a 13 in Mits TV, a mini system, a Yamaha MD player, and a walkman. all for sales

 

[Ralph Summa]

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

 

[Mark C Sherman]

2 years ago my brother-in-law won a brand new $80,000 Porsche 911 in a raffle

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

 

[Lance Nichols]

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.

 

[Travis Hedger]

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

 

[Ryan Wright]

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

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.

 

[Michael Boyd]

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.

 

[Holadem]

I won 5 DVDs at ScOoTeRpAlOoZa.

--
Holadem - is that the right spelling?

 

[Matt DeVillier]

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

 

[Kevin P]

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!)

 

[Ralph Summa]

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.