@Pavlov you beat me to it! Aside from the incalculable benefits, my wife is very talented with page design, book layout, etc. Without her good 'eye,' my various books, etc, would not have sold well. She also go me going at 4:30 AM so I could be fully ready to be a morning radio DJ and later news host. We count our blessings, don't we?
My biggest win in my 35 years has been a $25 Amazon card won from taking a survey for my insurance company. Maybe not high dollar, but useful enough. And I was THRILLED, as Im not a Winner of Things.
@AnnaB That's awesome! Congrats. I'm going to Ireland in June for the first time. I've always wanted to go there. I love cooking, as well so I think you winning that and going there are doubly awesome.
@Bingo If you're going to be in Dingle, please eat at a place called Out of the Blue. BEST SEAFOOD EVER! In Dublin there's a place called Boxty House that was also fantastic. Also, the brown bread that's served all over the place and the black pudding that's served at breakfast should not be missed.
I think I won about $1000 in a girls highschool soccer fundraiser raffle. It was cool. Might have been more. But about $1000....
I purchased a scratcher from the gas station, won $400... I went to cash it in but the gas station did not have sufficient funds. Forced to trek across the parking lot to the grocery, I passes some varsity soccer girls.... they were having a fund-raiser, and due to my recent good fortune, I felt the need to pay-it-forward. I bought two tickets ($40 or so) and went on with my day.
Months later, I get a call.... I had won the grand prize... Pretty fucking rad. It was between $1000-$2000 if memory serves... It came at the right time as I was unemployed for about a month and was in need of some rent money.
He's won week-long trips to three different all-star or championship games. The Pro-Bowl in Hawaii was the biggest of the three: air fare, rental car, hotel, tickets, spending money.
He's won a bunch of stupid things, too many to count: a laptop here, iPad somewhere else.
And his wife won it all on The Price Is Right. House full of furniture, new car.
Fun fact: it's highly unlikely anyone has ever won an actual car on a game show.
First of all, the cars are always stripped down. You know how folks like Honda sell an SE, an LE, and an LX version? The game show car is the one without any extra letters. My sis-in-laws' Chevy Barretta had no passenger side mirror, no glove box door, maybe 13" wheels, just a naked metal stick where the gear selector should be.
Secondly, the show managers hit you lightening fast with your choice of one of two paperwork packages to sign: (1) take the piece of shit car, and oh by the way, we'll need a check right now for tax, registration, title, etc, or (2) here's a check for the full value of our piece of shit car, so you can go buy yourself something you actually like.
That way they can loan a car out for a couple of weeks, it gets passed from Price Is Right to Wheel o Fortune to whatever, and they don't actually lose the car.
I was a minor celebrity on Nashville's Man of Liesure morning contest. Can't remember if it was Lightening 100 or Thunder 94. DJ Adam Dread did kind of a David Letterman top ten, listeners called in with answers, he picked the funniest. Ran the thing every morning, Mon thru Fri.
Long story ... was in the Army then ... he announced the contest at 0500, when i was getting up for PT, so I'd hear the day's theme and then have a couple of hours to think about it. Something about brain storming while running 5 miles, guess i was able to come up with some decent ones, because over an 18 month period, I won the thing about every other week. Must have won a dozen pairs of concert tickets, comedy club tickets, tour t-shirts, maybe 100 CDs.
Finally met Adam at a cigar bar opening. He was cool, said "you're the guy! The guy who always wins!" But then said, "gotta ask, kinda weird that you call in every day." I explained that it took zero time out of my day, that i had 90 minutes of PT time to think of an answer, then called on the drive home. We figured there must be something about creative, mental tasks and physical exercise that went together.
Represented the company at a construction supplier function. My name was drawn and I won an expensive pro quality air impact wrench. Boss thought I should give it to him. Told him no since I attended as the company representative because he didn't want to go. Still have it.
I won second place in the official Apple Keynote Design Contest back in the early days of keynote when they were trying to promote it as a an alternative to PowerPoint. I got second place for a presentation about pennies. Got a 200 dollar iTunes gift card.
Not sure what it's exact value is, but I won a replica hood of Dale Earnhardt's 1996 all-star race car. Signed by the man himself! It's 1 out of 1996, probably 1:3 or 1:2 scale. Only time I've ever tried to look it up for value, I couldn't find anything close, so no idea how much it's actually worth now.
When I was living in San Francisco in the mid 90s I was a member of some big bank. This bank was holding some contest that they advertised all the time in the mailers and one day I get a check.
OMG I had won the contest! WRONG.
It was for a little over $1,000 and I cashed that thing immediately paying off some debt and enjoying some of it with a great dinner etc - ran a small biz with my partner who is a fashion designer.
About a week later learn that it was a mistake by the bank and they want the money back. Fuck you big bank!
This goes on for a couple of months and I finally get a sympathetic customer service woman on the line who agrees with me - if I had made a huge mistake it would be MY mistake but when a bank makes a mistake it is still MY mistake. NOT.
Somehow this woman made that the banks' mistake the banks' mistake and not mine and I closed out that account! So I did win the fucking contest.
I've actually won quite a few small raffles through the years; won the grand prize ( worth over $2K) once. Then a couple of prizes in the hundreds, and a bunch of small prizes (< $100). But I like donating to organizations I support when they do raffles, so I'm entered into quite a few. Never anything really big, and my largest ever lotto/powerball win was $37 many many years ago.
When I was like 8, I won one of those "guess how many candies are in the jar and win it" things at a Halloween event at my school. I guessed 205, there were 206. Needless to say I was a very happy 8 year old.
The win I was the most excited about was a 5lb chocolate heart from a Totino's display drawing at the grocery store when I was 7 or 8. The most valuable thing I ever won was probably, when I was about 10, a local radio station, The Frog FM, was doing a show from a boot and leather goods store, and they had a contest that the first person to bring a live frog into the store got a free pair of snake skin boots. I had a pet frog, my dad wanted some free boots, so we rushed over there and won a pair of custom fitted boots that I think my dad still has in a closet somewhere.
Biggest contest wins -- A round trip plane ticket anywhere continental US from Orbitz. -- a 250 bike that came in form of cert. to bike shop. Bike shop then ripped me off ( I was suppose to get the difference back to use on other items -- they had games, etc..-- cause I didn't "spend it all" ) But my nephew got a great bike -- $100 lottery ticket -- A 50/50 raffle win I don't remember how much And lots of little raffles for smaller things.
My biggest prize is my plush Irk from the FFB Bracket : )
I won a 10 speed bike the color of Dr. Pepper with the logo plastered all over it...and when I was about 13 I won a Tiffany stained glass lamp...I saw absolutely no value in that...gave it to my Mom...guess that's why I was always her favorite!
My (not-yet-)wife and I attended a Bridal Show and entered a contest to win an all-expense-paid trip to a Sandals resort in Jamaica. We got called a few months later that we'd won. Figured it was a scam of some sort and that everyone "won" until they sent out a photographer to take a photo of us and our family with a big check and put us in their magazine.
We didn't read the fine print closely enough and years later when we got married, it had expired. Whomp whomp.
@mikey That stinks you didn't get to use it! At least the NEXT time you win a huge trip to Jamaica you'll know to read the expiration date! Fingers crossed!
I didn't get to keep it but I won a contest to test drive and promote the Ford Fiesta for free for 8 months before it made it's debut in America back in 2009. By "free" I mean that I didn't pay gas or insurance. They also sent me on random paid "missions" for 6 months so I could take the car places and do random stuff with it like volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, doing a flash mob at an Ikea, sky diving (which I really only used the car to drive to the location. I unfortunately didn't get to dive WITH the car), and buying one of everything at Chickfila.
@duodec Full size, real live pony. I don't think the people raffling it thought anyone would actually claim it, who has a place for a pony? I did. Had 5 acres and a lonely horse.
I have won a bunch of stuff from an all expense paid trip for 2 to CDs, but the two that are the best story are: when I was about 10 years old a package comes in the mail with a congratulations letter so I open the "prize" and it is a case of Vicks 44D cough syrup, not thrilling. Then about 15 years ago I won a radio contest based on sending in a story, I won a kid's bike (before I had kids) a 3 foot long stuffed Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, and a ride in the real Wienermobile!!!
Note - I enter ever friggin contest I can so although I win stuff I enter about 1,000 contests or so for every one I might win.
does a fuku count? or is that a purchase? maybe i won the right to purchase it. either way, if so, i guess that last fuku was worth about $300+! still smiling. thanks meh!
I won a big ass TV in the first Fuku and I won a really cool tactical case filled with every season of 24 on DVD along with a replica Jack Bauer jacket and shirt.
I won an all expenses paid trip to N. Carolina. Fun but weird. I live in the PNW so kind of a culture shock. Traveled around the US and some of the rest of the world, but I'd never spent any time in the south except in Florida as a kid.I also won a ride on a helicopter over the hydro races at SeaFair, a $1200 vanity, $1000 cash, many smaller things too. I used to enter a lot of sweepstakes online.
I won a cruise for two but I had to pay for port taxes and fees and whatnot. Plus the cabin was in the worst category, so I paid to upgrade for a window. Then copious amounts of alcohol, gambling, shore excursions...
At a developer's conference some years back I won a computer during the happy hour raffle. The funny part is I kept telling my friends that I had to get down to the drawing so I can win my computer. I must have said it 10 times during the day, and they were totally sick of me by the end of the event.
When the time came and they called my name, the looks on their faces may have meant more to me than actually winning the thing. It was pretty good computer at the time, worth about $1,800 if memory serves. Better -- It came with professional grade webserver software that I flipped on ebay for another $1000. I was pretty pleased.
I was awarded @MrsPavlov, and (no one knows why, but) she puts up with my shit. We have a beautiful son.
That's pretty much priceless.
I have won all the things.
@Pavlov Best answer! I won $40,000 in student debt when I got married.
@Pavlov you beat me to it! Aside from the incalculable benefits, my wife is very talented with page design, book layout, etc. Without her good 'eye,' my various books, etc, would not have sold well. She also go me going at 4:30 AM so I could be fully ready to be a morning radio DJ and later news host. We count our blessings, don't we?
I don't win things.
My biggest win in my 35 years has been a $25 Amazon card won from taking a survey for my insurance company. Maybe not high dollar, but useful enough. And I was THRILLED, as Im not a Winner of Things.
$10,000. Took Mom on a lovely, lovely trip to Ireland with the cash.
@AnnaB Don't be shy about it, Chef ...you won Chopped! (sorry if I let the cat out of the bag again)
https://meh.com/forum/topics/have-you-ever-worked-in-a-restaurant
@AnnaB That's awesome! Congrats. I'm going to Ireland in June for the first time. I've always wanted to go there. I love cooking, as well so I think you winning that and going there are doubly awesome.
@Bingo If you're going to be in Dingle, please eat at a place called Out of the Blue. BEST SEAFOOD EVER! In Dublin there's a place called Boxty House that was also fantastic. Also, the brown bread that's served all over the place and the black pudding that's served at breakfast should not be missed.
@AnnaB Thanks for the tips. I'll have to ask the gf where it is we are going. Her family is putting it together so I'm kinda going along for the ride.
I think I won about $1000 in a girls highschool soccer fundraiser raffle. It was cool. Might have been more. But about $1000....
I purchased a scratcher from the gas station, won $400... I went to cash it in but the gas station did not have sufficient funds. Forced to trek across the parking lot to the grocery, I passes some varsity soccer girls.... they were having a fund-raiser, and due to my recent good fortune, I felt the need to pay-it-forward. I bought two tickets ($40 or so) and went on with my day.
Months later, I get a call.... I had won the grand prize... Pretty fucking rad. It was between $1000-$2000 if memory serves... It came at the right time as I was unemployed for about a month and was in need of some rent money.
@connorbush fuck. passed*/encountered
Once, I ordered six pens from Office Depot, but they sent me six 12-pen boxes instead.
(But if you just mean contests, I won a Moby CD once, that I already owned.)
Never win shit.
But my brother ...
He's won week-long trips to three different all-star or championship games. The Pro-Bowl in Hawaii was the biggest of the three: air fare, rental car, hotel, tickets, spending money.
He's won a bunch of stupid things, too many to count: a laptop here, iPad somewhere else.
And his wife won it all on The Price Is Right. House full of furniture, new car.
They never play the lottery. Folks always tell them they should. They always say it would jinx them, break their lucky streak on the smaller prizes.
Fun fact: it's highly unlikely anyone has ever won an actual car on a game show.
First of all, the cars are always stripped down. You know how folks like Honda sell an SE, an LE, and an LX version? The game show car is the one without any extra letters. My sis-in-laws' Chevy Barretta had no passenger side mirror, no glove box door, maybe 13" wheels, just a naked metal stick where the gear selector should be.
Secondly, the show managers hit you lightening fast with your choice of one of two paperwork packages to sign: (1) take the piece of shit car, and oh by the way, we'll need a check right now for tax, registration, title, etc, or (2) here's a check for the full value of our piece of shit car, so you can go buy yourself something you actually like.
That way they can loan a car out for a couple of weeks, it gets passed from Price Is Right to Wheel o Fortune to whatever, and they don't actually lose the car.
Now that I think about it ...
I was a minor celebrity on Nashville's Man of Liesure morning contest. Can't remember if it was Lightening 100 or Thunder 94. DJ Adam Dread did kind of a David Letterman top ten, listeners called in with answers, he picked the funniest. Ran the thing every morning, Mon thru Fri.
Long story ... was in the Army then ... he announced the contest at 0500, when i was getting up for PT, so I'd hear the day's theme and then have a couple of hours to think about it. Something about brain storming while running 5 miles, guess i was able to come up with some decent ones, because over an 18 month period, I won the thing about every other week. Must have won a dozen pairs of concert tickets, comedy club tickets, tour t-shirts, maybe 100 CDs.
Finally met Adam at a cigar bar opening. He was cool, said "you're the guy! The guy who always wins!" But then said, "gotta ask, kinda weird that you call in every day." I explained that it took zero time out of my day, that i had 90 minutes of PT time to think of an answer, then called on the drive home. We figured there must be something about creative, mental tasks and physical exercise that went together.
Life was so much simpler then.
@MehnofLaMehncha i had a yellow Beretta. Had a glove box and both mirrors, met my wife in it. Wish I still had it.
True story. I once won 200 pair of "trip" glasses from a start up web site. Tried to sell them for a buck a pair but no one wanted them....
I won a massive box of neoprene once...
I won $500 gift card to an online store where I spend tons of money, so that was nice.
Represented the company at a construction supplier function. My name was drawn and I won an expensive pro quality air impact wrench. Boss thought I should give it to him. Told him no since I attended as the company representative because he didn't want to go. Still have it.
Yep, won a brand new car. Put me Ina different tax bracket and screwed my taxes that year. But totally worth it.
@jchristner oh yea my odds were one in 2.69 million.
@jchristner
Ft McPherson commissary contest, 1969, dad won a Camero, took the cash instead. Always gave him grief that he should have saved it until i was 16.
I won a trip to Hawaii in 1984. It was just air fare but I stayed with a friend's cousin and had a great time.
I won second place in the official Apple Keynote Design Contest back in the early days of keynote when they were trying to promote it as a an alternative to PowerPoint. I got second place for a presentation about pennies. Got a 200 dollar iTunes gift card.
@daveJay You mean you got 20,000 penny iTunes gift card, I presume.
Does a scholarship count?
I won a pretty nice stereo at a company Holiday party!
I won $200 gift card to a restaurant at a different company Holiday party few years later!
I won a contest from T-Mobile a few years ago. It was a Galaxy Note 2 and a year of unlimited service. I haven't won anything since that date.
I won two boxes of turkey shotgun shells from my local gun range.
Won the gold ps4 package from taco bell...only thing I've ever won
@knick2007 did ya ebay it?
@knick2007 I won the white PS4 Destiny bundle the year before. Gave it to my nephew for Christmas.
Not sure what it's exact value is, but I won a replica hood of Dale Earnhardt's 1996 all-star race car. Signed by the man himself! It's 1 out of 1996, probably 1:3 or 1:2 scale. Only time I've ever tried to look it up for value, I couldn't find anything close, so no idea how much it's actually worth now.
When I was living in San Francisco in the mid 90s I was a member of some big bank. This bank was holding some contest that they advertised all the time in the mailers and one day I get a check.
OMG I had won the contest! WRONG.
It was for a little over $1,000 and I cashed that thing immediately paying off some debt and enjoying some of it with a great dinner etc - ran a small biz with my partner who is a fashion designer.
About a week later learn that it was a mistake by the bank and they want the money back. Fuck you big bank!
This goes on for a couple of months and I finally get a sympathetic customer service woman on the line who agrees with me - if I had made a huge mistake it would be MY mistake but when a bank makes a mistake it is still MY mistake. NOT.
Somehow this woman made that the banks' mistake the banks' mistake and not mine and I closed out that account! So I did win the fucking contest.
I won a lava lamp another time!
I've actually won quite a few small raffles through the years; won the grand prize ( worth over $2K) once. Then a couple of prizes in the hundreds, and a bunch of small prizes (< $100). But I like donating to organizations I support when they do raffles, so I'm entered into quite a few. Never anything really big, and my largest ever lotto/powerball win was $37 many many years ago.
I won a cooler in a dvd store Oscar contest once. Does that count? No it doesn't :(
@mfladd Please tell me they gave you a box of kittens instead of the cooler.
BTW, for all you winners (especially cash)......Deny everything.
@mfladd As general policy, I always deny everything.
When I was like 8, I won one of those "guess how many candies are in the jar and win it" things at a Halloween event at my school. I guessed 205, there were 206. Needless to say I was a very happy 8 year old.
@Cave What did you end up winning??? I hope as an 8-year-old your prize wasn't "pride in knowing you won!"
@janetv @Cave it sounds like he won the jar with all the candy!
@janetv It was the jar of candy
The win I was the most excited about was a 5lb chocolate heart from a Totino's display drawing at the grocery store when I was 7 or 8.
The most valuable thing I ever won was probably, when I was about 10, a local radio station, The Frog FM, was doing a show from a boot and leather goods store, and they had a contest that the first person to bring a live frog into the store got a free pair of snake skin boots. I had a pet frog, my dad wanted some free boots, so we rushed over there and won a pair of custom fitted boots that I think my dad still has in a closet somewhere.
Biggest contest wins
-- A round trip plane ticket anywhere continental US from Orbitz.
-- a 250 bike that came in form of cert. to bike shop. Bike shop then ripped me off ( I was suppose to get the difference back to use on other items -- they had games, etc..-- cause I didn't "spend it all" ) But my nephew got a great bike
-- $100 lottery ticket
-- A 50/50 raffle win I don't remember how much
And lots of little raffles for smaller things.
My biggest prize is my plush Irk from the FFB Bracket : )
I won a 10 speed bike the color of Dr. Pepper with the logo plastered all over it...and when I was about 13 I won a Tiffany stained glass lamp...I saw absolutely no value in that...gave it to my Mom...guess that's why I was always her favorite!
My (not-yet-)wife and I attended a Bridal Show and entered a contest to win an all-expense-paid trip to a Sandals resort in Jamaica. We got called a few months later that we'd won. Figured it was a scam of some sort and that everyone "won" until they sent out a photographer to take a photo of us and our family with a big check and put us in their magazine.
We didn't read the fine print closely enough and years later when we got married, it had expired. Whomp whomp.
@mikey That stinks you didn't get to use it! At least the NEXT time you win a huge trip to Jamaica you'll know to read the expiration date! Fingers crossed!
I won a new car when the car was worth 4 figures. That was more than a few years ago.
I didn't get to keep it but I won a contest to test drive and promote the Ford Fiesta for free for 8 months before it made it's debut in America back in 2009. By "free" I mean that I didn't pay gas or insurance. They also sent me on random paid "missions" for 6 months so I could take the car places and do random stuff with it like volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, doing a flash mob at an Ikea, sky diving (which I really only used the car to drive to the location. I unfortunately didn't get to dive WITH the car), and buying one of everything at Chickfila.
I won a pony.
@Teripie was it a little pony?
@duodec Full size, real live pony. I don't think the people raffling it thought anyone would actually claim it, who has a place for a pony? I did. Had 5 acres and a lonely horse.
I have won a bunch of stuff from an all expense paid trip for 2 to CDs, but the two that are the best story are: when I was about 10 years old a package comes in the mail with a congratulations letter so I open the "prize" and it is a case of Vicks 44D cough syrup, not thrilling. Then about 15 years ago I won a radio contest based on sending in a story, I won a kid's bike (before I had kids) a 3 foot long stuffed Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, and a ride in the real Wienermobile!!!
Note - I enter ever friggin contest I can so although I win stuff I enter about 1,000 contests or so for every one I might win.
does a fuku count? or is that a purchase? maybe i won the right to purchase it. either way, if so, i guess that last fuku was worth about $300+! still smiling. thanks meh!
bath
swordfish
apostroph'e
first
Poor pitiful me. :(
I'll go hang with Eeyore now.
@f00l But you have won the appreciation of many for being a frequent star-er of posts ;)
I won a big ass TV in the first Fuku and I won a really cool tactical case filled with every season of 24 on DVD along with a replica Jack Bauer jacket and shirt.
I won an all expenses paid trip to N. Carolina. Fun but weird. I live in the PNW so kind of a culture shock. Traveled around the US and some of the rest of the world, but I'd never spent any time in the south except in Florida as a kid.I also won a ride on a helicopter over the hydro races at SeaFair, a $1200 vanity, $1000 cash, many smaller things too. I used to enter a lot of sweepstakes online.
whats the value of all your hearts and minds?
@Panegyric
I won a cruise for two but I had to pay for port taxes and fees and whatnot. Plus the cabin was in the worst category, so I paid to upgrade for a window. Then copious amounts of alcohol, gambling, shore excursions...
Great trip, worth it.
At a developer's conference some years back I won a computer during the happy hour raffle. The funny part is I kept telling my friends that I had to get down to the drawing so I can win my computer. I must have said it 10 times during the day, and they were totally sick of me by the end of the event.
When the time came and they called my name, the looks on their faces may have meant more to me than actually winning the thing. It was pretty good computer at the time, worth about $1,800 if memory serves. Better -- It came with professional grade webserver software that I flipped on ebay for another $1000. I was pretty pleased.