melbatoast

I don't gamble, (I've gambled once and that's about it) so I've never really won anything, but there's a new small business website that I belong to and over the last month they had a "sweepstakes" of sorts. Each time you logged on you were automatically entered into a drawing for $500. I was one of the weekly winners! I got a FedEx letter on Monday with all the details and the publicity release which needed to be notarized and sent back to them, and in return I get a check for $500 and starting Monday - a feature on the front page of their site that runs for the week with a bio about me and my business and all that jazz. I'm thrilled!

I'm going to use the money to pay for my monthly fees. I know, boring. I won it for my business, I'll put it back into the business. Win/win.

Have you ever won anything? What did you do with the money/winnings?

The Bus

I won a jump rope at an 8-year old's birthday party.

melbatoast

Did you "win" that jump rope or did you "take" the jump rope?

The Bus

I won it by being bigger than that stupid kid.

MY JUMP! ROPE! I WANT IT!

TomOpus

I've won a few odds and ends:

1) When I was real young, I won a raffle at a movie theater. I think it was a certificate at a clothing store.
2) At a McDonald's I won a free Big Mac a week for a year.
3) At work we had "pajama day". Part of my outfit was Spongebob boxers that had "Employee of the Month" on the front crotch. I won a DVD for best pajama.
4) When I gamble at a casino, I tend to break even.... so I'm a winner in a way

kvrdave

I get hit up for a lot of raffles for local clubs. I just won a "game basket" which was about 25 board games for the family. I win a number of things each year that way, but I probably end up in 30 raffles or so.

Dave7393

When I was in college, I won the Grand Prize in a sweepstakes in Modern Drummer magazine. Total haul was over $4K worth of drum gear.

calhoun07

I won a "treasure chest" of games from a box of Coca Pebbles when I was a kid. And that's what I expected...what I saw on the back of the box: a wooden crate opening up to reveal boxes and boxes of exciting and new games.

What I got was cheap cardboard crap. One game board that could be turned in different directions and turned upside down to play different games on it and cardboard and a few cheap plastic pieces.

My life hasn't gotten much better at winning things since then, I am afraid. That was about the highlight.

zelebron

I won a CD ,couple of shirts, and a cordless phone.

Brack

I won a bike by being the 64th caller for a giveaway on Star 64, which was the name of one of the local tv channels at the time. I was maybe 10, but still too big for it, so we gave to an underprivileged kid who could use it.

wishbone

I won a bottle of wine at a reverse raffle a few months ago.

andicus

An infant car-seat

A safety kit with a couple smoke detectors, a CO detector, a kitchen fire extinguisher and some other stuff I can't remember.

A roll-away basketball net

A horseshoe set

A Family Guy Season One DVD set

Bronkster

About 18 years ago I won $3,000 in the state lottery by hitting 5 out of 6 numbers. If my dog had been born 9 days later I would've split 20 million with someone.

The Cow

First thing that popped into my head...

High score on a Pac-Man machine in the early 80s in a month long contest netted me 'blue-seat tix for a Reds game'. Woohoo!

Have won several things from radio station call-ins - 'tix and t-shirt for the premier of Flash Gordon' was a highlight back in the day

Those simple things are what stick, there have been some bigger things, but that is the type of things that stay with me.

dom56

I won $500 on a scratch-off ticket from a Mexican restaurant a few years ago. About a few weeks later I won $100 ticket from the same restaurant.

I still haven't won a free DVD from DVDTalk.

Mondo Kane

Same here!

Same here...Again!

I love movie trivia and it's won me a few things over the years.

Won this book at their site (Autographed by them too)


Won some martial arts VCDs on another site (Killer Clans,Bastard Swordsman,Secret Service of the Imperial Court)

nodeerforamonth

yes

D.Pham5GLTE (>60GB)

i won 3 cents after gambling for a few hours in Vegas. then i couldn't cash it out because the amount was so small, so i was left with a useless piece of paper.

from raffles, i won a meguiars detailing kit, eibach lowering springs, hats, shirts, a mug, cash (maybe $30 or so)

movie diva

Won some DVDs on another site,1000.00 from a contest that the Lottery had on their web site,150.00 with scratchers, and a Super Nintindo game.

Spicollidriver1

I have won thousands of dollars over the years in lottery tickets that why I have slowed down and don't by the much because if I start losing I will try to rationalize playing more since I am still up. I believe that the last time I figured it out I was up like $5500 dollars in lottery and $3000 in regular gambling, but have won more since then.

Boba Fett

LUCK CONTESTS:
When I was really young, McDonalds had these packs of basketball cards for promos. In special packs, there would be a card saying you had won a prize. My third pack in, I got a card that said I won a basketball that had apparently been used in an NBA All-Star game.

Not too long ago, Coke had one of their 'bottle cap prizes' contests. The odds for winning a hat was 1:72. My first Coke I bought with the promo caps was a winner. I gave the hat to my dad though because it was Coke's Nascar hat.

Around the same time, a local mechanic had a drawing for prizes for all customers in the past three months (they had just opened up shop). I won a roadside emergency kit; my dad ended up winning the grand prize of a shelf-size mini stereo system.

SKILL CONTESTS:
I've won quite a few, but most recently, a photoshop contest were I made an Admiral Ackbard themed boardgame cover. I ended up winning a new board game (pretty decent game too) from the sponsor of the contest.

JP5683

lots of stuff from a radio station that used to be here...

free Taco bell, cd's, tapes, posters, a Nintendo 8 bit, 97 cd's (frequency was 97.5)

darkflounder

Cheap bastards. Where's your half-a-CD?

I think the most I've ever won was tickets to a circus in a city too far away to travel to when I was a kid. Call-in contest for a local AM station.

Granted, I don't play the lottery (lottery tickets are a tax on people who are bad at math), and I usually can't be bothered to enter drawings.

drmoze

I won a complete catalog of Who albums (yes, vinyl!) in college. A long weekend trip for 2 to the Hard Rock in Vegas w/airfare. Front-row ringside seats for the first ECW PPV (Barely Legal) plus a bunch of ECW swag, including a cool autographed shirt and hat. I know there must be other random stuff over the years, but I can't recall it right now.

RaMMaR

i won a DVD from DVDTalk many years ago... The Duel.
From another site, i won (so far) a The Tick: Season 2 iron-on transfer and 3 DVDs: Fantastic Four (FS), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 5, and Gabriel.