The $49 tablet has nice specs but how long will it last? The guy who did the Youtube review took his back because it had dead pixels, right out of the box. Most of the good reviews are from people who just received the tablet and haven’t had it very long.
I have never heard such a tale of woe.
It’s all moot because it appears that I am FORCED 
to keep the iPad and give my wife a lovely but impractical present.
OTOH, maybe Best Buy will let me return it for store credit and get her a new TV. They have a Sharp Aquos 32" for $180. Good TV–I’ve specced and bought a bunch of Aquosen of all sizes for my old billionaire clients.
No, it’s right.
The de minimis rule for gifts to employees only covers value up to about $20 or $25, generally, and this is true whether it’s a gift, bonus, or prize.
Sometimes tax is paid on these things and employees don’t realize it, though. It depends on how closely you watch your pay stubs. You certainly won’t see it itemized on a W-2 and you won’t be writing a separate check; the employer would just withhold it from your next paycheck. It might not even be itemized on the pay stub.
On the other hand, many employers don’t understand or follow the rules. If the payroll service is never told, the taxes are never withheld. It sometimes comes up in an audit, though.
That gives me an idea. “Never have I heard a tale so sad. As that of dropzone and his free iPad.”
Yeah, boohoo, you are so poor and destitute that you need food stamps yet even if you do return a free item, you still will use the money to buy either another tablet or a new TV.
wooosh
Nah, those are just based on an assumption that the best I can hope for is store credit. Not much else to choose from at Best Butt.
That’s actually what bothered me about winning it. They gave me this wonderful prize, but I cannot enjoy it. I look at it and wish I could open the box, but I can’t. I wish I could give it to my crippled wife, but I can’t. I wish I could return this toy and get money for necessities, but I can’t. I could put it on eBay, but that’s not something I trust. So, instead of looking at it and feeling good I look at it and feel angry, sad, and guilty for thinking it could somehow be mine. And I’m sick of feeling angry, sad, and guilty. I haven’t been able to enjoy much of anything for years, and it’s worn me out.
And the asshole from the state didn’t call. I gave up half a day’s pay for a call that never came. And when I tried to reschedule their phone system sent me to a full mailbox. Fuckers.
You know what they say, when life hands you a box of lemons, just eat them until you make yourself puke until you are so sick you have to go to the hospital and run up huge medical bills that bankrupt your whole family. Seriously, it sounds like you are depressed. A little good luck like this should cheer you up at least a little but you have to grant yourself permission to let that happen.
Give the iPad to your wife. It does belong to you. Dig the wireless router out and make it work. It isn’t that difficult. You really have to start making small steps to make your life better when the opportunity arises because it was a gift from fate. Making a wireless network work again can be mildly frustrating if you haven’t done it in a while but it is a great feeling when it finally works, your wife is happy and you can use it to have small luxuries and diversions that you didn’t before.
Thank you. It’s been so long since I could give myself permission to be happy or have fun I’ve forgotten what it’s like. The single router in place should work but the second would be to improve coverage and her iPad enjoyment. I almost enjoy electronic fiddling like that.
And I like your “gift from fate” because, as I said in the OP, I almost felt I was “doomed” to win it, and winning was almost anti-climactic. I don’t really believe in woo like that, but maybe my subconscious was telling me to stop being such a droopy-drawers and have some guilt-free fun.
I did get out some anger with a nasty email about my shabby treatment to the Department of Human Services. That felt good.
I know I’m late to the thread, but I recommend selling the maxiPad, buying your wife a good Android tablet like a Nexus or something, and having a bit of cash left over for whatever other use. 
Sell it on Craigslist.
I will have nothing to do with Craigslist. Nothing has shown me recently that it is any less full of flaky faux hippies than when it started.
I’m trying to set up the thing because I stopped being, as my supervisor put it, “so darn Irish Catholic” about it, and I hate it already. Didn’t help when I asked Wife for her Gmail password. “I don’t have one.” Turns out she deleted the main one that I thought I knew the password for, has another Gmail and a Yahoo she doesn’t remember, and now has a Yahoo she doesn’t know about.
I love the iPad manual that comes with it: a card with identification of a couple of the buttons. She won’t RTFM and neither will I until I’m stuck, but figuring out a whole new user interface stopped being fun years ago. Well, once more into the breach–hey gift horse, open wide!
That is the spirit! You won a great prize that many people in the world would literally kill for. Give it to your wife and build up your confidence by getting your wireless network to function correctly. It will be frustrating but fun. That is what you need to do now. Any talk of swaps for cash are insane and against the spirit of the people that gave it to you in the first place. Just wipe those thoughts out of your mind because it is counterproductive in many different ways and disrespectful to the people that organized the raffle.
BTW, only fools actually pay taxes on such things and I have never heard over of anyone that payed taxes on such prizes unless they they were forced to. You can make your own choice on that but it isn’t the norm.
I was forced to sign a tax form to get it. OTOH, I don’t make enough to end up paying income tax—WIN!
Network is working great down here. I’ll test it upstairs tomorrow, after it’s charged and I get the bugs out. Wife does not like bugs; she’s the queen of unplug and play.
Bolded relevant part…
You must live in a huge Mansion, I don’t have one 65 foot wall inside my entire house. Maybe in the basement, but I really doubt the television is water proof.