Competitions

[Lofty]

Have you ever won a competition? If so, what's the best thing you've ever won? I once won £1000 on the postcode lottery, if that doesn't count I won a competition I entered at a hotel and won another free stay there, quite amusing as I entered that whilst there with my old girlfriend and went for the free stay with my new girlfriend, cashback!

Anyway I thought about this morning as I have smashed my phone and have a long time to run on my contract so decided I'll just spam competitions to win a new one in the meantime, I know Jim won 5K on a kit kat or something.

Supposedly there are people who are 'professional' competition winners but not sure how that works beyond entering a load of draws for stuff you don't want.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I did indeed win £5k in a Kit Kat. The amount of absurd administrative hoops I had to jump through in order to actually get the money was really impressive, but we got there after about six months.

Don't eat Kit Kats any more, I'm never topping that one.

[Spikey M]

We won tickets to see England at Twickenham, a hotel for the night and £200 spending money by scanning a clubcard voucher at the till.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

When I was a kid I went to our town music festival, Rhythms of the World. I was asked to draw the winner of the raffle for a DVD player (they had just come out).

The tickets weren't folded properly at all and I could see my ticket in there. I debated pulling it out but I was too scared at the thought of people knowing I cheated so I didn't. The kid who pulled the second placed prize did end up pulling my ticket though which was a £50 voucher to some wank local gift shop that sells candles, incense, oils etc etc.

Can't remember winning anything else. A cousin of mine won 5k Zloty(about £1.2k at the time) or so on the lottery when he was 18.

[Shindig]

I won a Grand National sweepstake at work by pulling out Tiger Roll. Got myself a £25 restaurant voucher I didn't even bother to use. We currently have a Euro 2024 draw going for tickets. The catch being you have to make your own way there, sort your own accommodation out AND clear any potential leave with your team leader.

[John Arne]

I won a Barclays Premier League Calendar from Soccer AM around '95, '96.. Arrived in mid-July.

[Baz]

I won a computer by voting for StarCraft II as game of the year, despite having never played it. It was awesome, all top spec for the time.

[Lofty]

Just remembered my mate won back stage passes at Leeds festival when we were teenagers, he took my other mate with him but the previous night said other mate had got absolutely steamboated and was very worse for wear. He spent the entire time passed out on a sofa which it turned out was compere Colin Murray's sofa, he wasn't impressed

[Ben]

A mate of mine won a Merc on one of those competitions. Car was worth about £75k but he took the £60k cash alternative. Completely genuine, he showed us the bank transfer which happened as he was on the phone to them.

[Lofty]

The online raffles? I think they prefer to give cash alternatives a lot of times. Can't believe it hasn't been regulated yet, the amount of absolute dodgy drug dealers I know who have set up their own 'competitions' site recently is madness.

[Gray Fox]

Won my school a limited numbers school trip to the newly opening Millennium Dome. Could only take like 5 kids from each class and the school had me draw out names in front of everyone to see who went.

[Ben]

Yeah that’s it. They absolutely prefer the cash alternative because we worked out our mate lost out on at least £10k if he claimed the car and instantly sold it, but most people just can’t be arsed with the hassle.

I’d definitely hurl the car about like a thug for a few weeks then sell it. It was >400bhp.

They get around the regulation by asking you a question when you order. Fuck knows how that is a loophole but it is.

[Lofty]

The amount of money laundering going on must be obscene. There is a Cumbria focused one that started off giving away a grand at a time, now he is giving away houses and 100k, and sponsoring sports stadiums. You look at the winners and some of them pop up again and again, I dread to think how many tickets they are buying per draw.

[-james-]

I started the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire application form the other day and one of the questions is this. I haven't so I'll be picking the best one from this thread, cheers.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I started the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire application form the other day and one of the questions is this. I haven't so I'll be picking the best one from this thread, cheers.

My one, right?

[phonics]

I won this Atlas



for placing 3rd in the County Fair Costume competition. I was one of Bill or Ben the Flowerpot Men.

Probably would swap that achievement for a computer/a merc/5k

[Adramelch]

I won 5 extra days off at my previous job a couple years back, on a New Year's lottery of sorts.

On a grander scale, my grandpa won the lottery in the early 90s. I can't say what the exact equivalent value would be today but back then it was about half what my parents paid for their apartment, so I guess maybe something like 80-100k euros.

[Foe]

Two time champ at fantasy football - yet to receive the trophy.

One more and I’m keeping it.

[Ian]

First thing I remember winning was when I came out of school one day and my mum telling me there was a parcel for me, which was confusing and exciting because I had no reason to expect a parcel of any sort and being 10 didn't get any post. Turned out that I'd won some Boglins. We'd been in Turkey visiting my dad and from a copy of the fucking Beezer or something (wasn't a proper comic like Beano or Dandy) I had convinced my mum and dad to post off a competition entry where you could win a load of stuff, and that was one of the prizes. I was always surprised that my parents even posted it off from Turkey but thinking about it as I type this my dad probably just got it sent back with company mail. Still, young me was excited to have received a mysterious parcel.

Only other thing coming to mind is when I posted on here about winning an nVidia Shield, asking twice the best way to flog shit online (because I forgot I asked the first time) and ended up just keeping it and getting a shitload of use out of it.

I think that's it?

My dad did better. He once won a South African safari but only two tickets so rather than just taking me on a father-son trip like a legend and telling my mum and sister to do one, and presumably being unable to afford another two at the time, he gave it away. I also got a week's free accommodation in Spain which I used for a cheapo bit of winter sunshine.

[Kikó]

I once won a raffle in primary school which awarded me a football signed by the illustrious 94-95 Manchester City team. I very quickly played with it on the street making it even more worthless.

I also won a kids dance competition (lol) at Butlins or Pontins. The prize was some colourful watch without a battery which I never installed. I tried to rewin the competition later in the holiday but sadly, the pity had ended.

Finally, my favourite prize as I wear it every day. I won a Fitbit versa 2 in a raffle at a conference. It's broken twice since and been replaced by Fitbit(and now Google) so I've basically had a free new watch every couple of years since 2018.

[mo]

I didn't enter, but was the real winner. Sister entered a Movies, Games and Videos competition - first prize was Take That tickets. She won 2nd prize, a big ol box of K'nex. It wasn't Lego, but got a lot of joy out of that.

[Spikey M]

Supposedly there are people who are 'professional' competition winners but not sure how that works beyond entering a load of draws for stuff you don't want.

I went out with a couple of mates last night and one of them started banging on about his new sIdE hUsTlE. He has 2 apps, one that pays him to complete polls and one that pays him to play games. So I had a look out of interest and a poll that they estimate to take 15 minutes pays about 30p and on the other app, you could play a bubble shooter game and get 50p for reaching level 300. Another 70p at 500 and £1 at 700.

Geezer must "earn" about £5 a week out of it and his hourly rate must be about 30p. Just get a 2nd job delivering kebabs lad.

[Dave.]

I won a tamagotchi on the ITV programme Nationwide Football Extra in the mid-90's by correctly identifying three goalscorers. One of them was Preki, can't remember the others.

[Giggles]

Anything I've won has been earned, table quizzes, tv shows, phone-ins, etc. Never had any luck with chance.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

TV shows?