Needs to be said again: people who collect McDonald's Monopoly pieces are sad

[Smeghead]

Has anyone ever won the million dollar prize from these things?

[Carnacki]

@Apos

Heck, if Dopers love the game so much, then ok, let’s play it. You buy McDonalds food and tell me about it I’ll send you some game pieces I have lying around. If I ever send you a winning game piece to complete a combo, you win ten billion dollars!

So if I get a super-rare piece worth $50 if combined with the common piece, and you send me the common piece, I win $50 from McD’s and $10-bill from you? Sounds like a bad deal for you, my friend - odds notwithstanding.
CandidGamera expressed my sentiments exactly. Effort in setting aside a 4"x4" portion of my desk for accumulating game pieces = 0. Effort in having to go out and acquire a common piece if I get a rare piece = some. Some > 0, so it’s worth it to me to save the common pieces.

–KidScruffy

[The_Hamster_King]

Here’s the deal** Apos**. It’s fun to stick things to other things. Even if you don’t win a prize it’s satisfying to stick the stickers where they’re supposed to go.

[Monstre]

@BayleDomon

I’m with Anaamika, Monopoly is really the only reason I ever go to McDonald’s. Not because of the game pieces, though the instant-win food prizes are always handy, but because of the guaranteed Best Buy Bucks they’ve been handing out the last couple of years. I can usually accumulate $15-20 and get something fun at Best Buy, just for buying lunch like normal. Win-win.

Yeah, I’m more interested in the Best Buy bucks – sort of like a little rebate on lunch, when you were going to buy some lunch anyways. In fact, the first thing I bought from McDonalds during this year’s Monopoly outing was a chicken sandwich – and it had the $5 Best Buy Bucks piece on it. Sweet! And as you said, the instant win food prizes are nice to hit, too. I don’t have any delusions of ever getting Boardwalk… heh…

[Anaamika]

@Pochacco

Here’s the deal** Apos**. It’s fun to stick things to other things. Even if you don’t win a prize it’s satisfying to stick the stickers where they’re supposed to go.

Pretty much this is the appeal to me. Yes, I’m juvenile - but who cares.

[Ethilrist]

Back in the 70’s, Pepsi had a sweepstakes where they printed a letter on the underside of bottle caps and you needed to spell out “PEPSI SPIRIT” to win. They printed jillions of every letter except the “R”. I was amused to think that there were people all over the country spelling out “PEPSI SPIIT”.

[MrSquishy]

@BayleDomon

There’s also people who religiously buy lottery tickets, certain that this week everything will change. I don’t particularly condone preying on the mathematically challenged, but it’s definitely not confined just to McDonald’s.

I’m with Anaamika, Monopoly is really the only reason I ever go to McDonald’s. Not because of the game pieces, though the instant-win food prizes are always handy, but because of the guaranteed Best Buy Bucks they’ve been handing out the last couple of years. I can usually accumulate $15-20 and get something fun at Best Buy, just for buying lunch like normal. Win-win.

I’m not sure about that. The rules on the game board say that the Best Buy bucks are worth $2 each, but you can only redeem one per purchase. Is this not correct, or not how it works in practice (will Joe BestBuy let me use 10 at a time and get $20 off)?

[The_Chao_Goes_Mu]

@Ethilrist

Back in the 70’s, Pepsi had a sweepstakes where they printed a letter on the underside of bottle caps and you needed to spell out “PEPSI SPIRIT” to win. They printed jillions of every letter except the “R”. I was amused to think that there were people all over the country spelling out “PEPSI SPIIT”.

Auugh! I almost forgot about that hurtful con job. I was one of the PEPSI SPIIT losers. I asked every schoolmate of mine if they had an R. :mad:

I’ve been a Coke girl ever since. Screw you big, Pepsi.

Oh and don’t get me started on McDonald’s. Whenever that Monopoly game rolls around it’s just a reminder of how they target the poor. (Like every other fast food joint but they’re the McBiggest) McFuckers.

But yeah, I got mine in '84 during the Olympics. I was there so much they should’ve put me on the payroll.

[MovieMogul]

@Count Blucher

Since they are tossed out, McDonalds doesn’t have to award the prize. (To be specific, once 60 or 90 or whatever number of days listed in the rules have passed since the official end of game date, McD’s gets to keep its un-awarded prizes. They can sell them or give them away to executive employees as bonuses.)

Is there any record of how many of the really top prizes McD’s has (and hasn’t) awarded over the years?

[Apos]

Again, if you enjoy collecting your own toenail clippings and/or stickers for the sheer fun of it for its own sake, I don’t think I anything I said threatened your manhood.

[Anaamika]

@Apos

Again, if you enjoy collecting your own toenail clippings and/or stickers for the sheer fun of it for its own sake, I don’t think I anything I said threatened your manhood.

Well, that would be difficult, seeing as how I’m a girl and all.

[Hal_Briston]

@Ethilrist

Back in the 70’s, Pepsi had a sweepstakes where they printed a letter on the underside of bottle caps and you needed to spell out “PEPSI SPIRIT” to win. They printed jillions of every letter except the “R”. I was amused to think that there were people all over the country spelling out “PEPSI SPIIT”.

They also once ran a “Spell Your Name” contest, wherein the caps had letters and all you had to do was collect the ones to spell out your first name to win. The rub was that vowels were very uncommon.

What they forgot to take into consideration was how common the name Ng is in Asian communities. :smack:

[The_Swan]

@Ethilrist

Back in the 70’s, Pepsi had a sweepstakes where they printed a letter on the underside of bottle caps and you needed to spell out “PEPSI SPIRIT” to win. They printed jillions of every letter except the “R”. I was amused to think that there were people all over the country spelling out “PEPSI SPIIT”.

I remember that, but thought it was in the 80s. Maybe my mind is going.

[Carnacki]

@Apos

Again, if you enjoy collecting your own toenail clippings and/or stickers for the sheer fun of it for its own sake, I don’t think I anything I said threatened your manhood.

I think you’re missing the point. The point is that this assertion in the OP:

@Apos

But the common pieces are so common that you can easily find more if you have any need to match them with the rare pieces (heck, if you get the rare piece for 1 million bucks, heck, you could simply buy out a McDonalds to get the other pieces… and the other pieces are so common that it would likely take only a couple of large chicken sandwhich meals to get them all): you can even simply buy them from other people for a pittance. Collecting common pieces is like collecting pens off the street in the hope that you’ll someday find a blank check for a million dollars.

is misleading. There is time and effort saved by collecting the common pieces, and the comparison to collecting pens is a disingenuous one.

But if you enjoy mis-characterizations and criticizing others’ recreational activities for the sheer fun of it, I don’t think I’ve said anything to threaten your manhood.

[DrDeth]

@drm

When I was in university, a friend of mine made extra coin as a manager at McDonalds. Him and his crew would steal boxes of cups, take them home, and rip off the monopoly pieces in hopes of winning. They had two of everything hundreds of times over but never won anything big

Mea culpa. I have to confess something similar. I was throwing newspapers. They gave me an extra 5000 inserts with “game peices”. I have no idea why. My Ex and I went through all 5000. There were two $100 winners, which I gave away to friends, as I might not have been eligible.

Other that the occasional “free cheeseburger” I don’t bother with games like that. I open them, check for “instant winner” and toss 'em if no. I have won a fair amount of free food, so it’s not a waste.

[Apos]

There is time and effort saved by collecting the common pieces, and the comparison to collecting pens is a disingenuous one.

If we are doing a strict cost benefit anaylsis based purely on time spent vs. return, then the time wasted by people collecting pieces when they are never going to win anything by FAR dwarfs the tiny amount of effort it takes to acquire the rest of the pieces if they are needed. Heck, you probably have to put in far more effort to officially claim a prize than you do to scrounge up the rest of the pieces: they are that common.

The cost of doing anything can never be exactly 0 unless you want to bring in the “well, I enjoy it for my own random reasons” but in that case you can justify anything anyway.

[Carnacki]

@Apos

If we are doing a strict cost benefit anaylsis based purely on time spent vs. return, then the time wasted by people collecting pieces when they are never going to win anything by FAR dwarfs the tiny amount of effort it takes to acquire the rest of the pieces if they are needed. Heck, you probably have to put in far more effort to officially claim a prize than you do to scrounge up the rest of the pieces: they are that common.

The cost of doing anything can never be exactly 0 unless you want to bring in the “well, I enjoy it for my own random reasons” but in that case you can justify anything anyway.

I thought playing the game was a given, and we were discussing accumulating common pieces versus acquiring them once a rare is found. I stand corrected.

[Bosstone]

@MrSquishy

I’m not sure about that. The rules on the game board say that the Best Buy bucks are worth $2 each, but you can only redeem one per purchase. Is this not correct, or not how it works in practice (will Joe BestBuy let me use 10 at a time and get $20 off)?

Do you have an old game board perchance? The rules this year are that the Best Buy Bucks come in either $1 or $5 denominations, and you can use a maximum of $200 worth during any one transaction. Last year I saved up about $20 and got a flash drive for $10. I had something like 10 bucks the poor girl had to scan through.

Course, this year they’re only putting the bucks on the chicken products, where last year they put the bucks on most of the entrees and the large fries. :mad: I’m not willing to eat at McD’s that often.

[robotic_panda]

My boyfriend and I (and a McEmployee) had a conversation at McDonalds about this…

Boyfriend: I have 3 Railroads!
Me: So if I find the other one I get… ?
Him: Half!
McEmployee (cleaning up around us): Shhhyeah, good luck. The odds are like 1 one in a trillion.

We all agreed with this. After we left bf and I also talked about all the people who might try to buy dozens of big macs/big fries etc. just to try for the monopoly pieces. Then the bf made up a perfect McDonald’s Monopoly Game slogan, and now everytime I even hear of McDonalds, I think of it.

McDonald’s Monopoly: Get Rich, Or Die Tryin’!

[Monstre]

@MrSquishy

I’m not sure about that. The rules on the game board say that the Best Buy bucks are worth $2 each, but you can only redeem one per purchase. Is this not correct, or not how it works in practice (will Joe BestBuy let me use 10 at a time and get $20 off)?

The only low limit the rules mention is that you can use at most $3 of “Bucks” towards any single DVD or CD you purchase. The other limit is $200 in Best Buy Bucks can be used per day, per customer.

Last time they did the Best Buy Bucks thing (maybe a year ago?) – I ended up with $11 in “Bucks” and went to Best Buy and bought Diablo II (which had sticker price of $20). No limit on that purchase – applied all of the $11 towards it.