Some time ago, my wife and I visited a nearby pub that we’d never been to before. It was an uncomfortably hot day, and we figured we could get a bite without steaming up our kitchen. Of course, we also had a couple of drinks–beer for me, wine for her. “If you order Such-and-such a beer, we enter your name in a draw for an outdoor lounge chair and patio umbrella,” the waitress pointed out. So I ordered that particular beer, and filled out the contest entry form. “I never win these things, but what the hell,” I said to my wife.
It was a nice little place, and a week or two later, we arranged to meet a couple of friends there. The contest was still running, so I again had Such-and-such a beer, and filled out the entry form.
Grand total of two entry forms in a boxful that had been accumulating for what? Maybe a month? In a pub where a lot of Such-and-such beer is sold daily? What are the chances?
Really, what are the chances when you only have two entry forms in there? Because whatever they were, I beat them. I got a call from the pub the other day telling me I won the chair and patio umbrella. Picked them up yesterday, and they are nice. Just wish we had a little more summer left with which to enjoy them, but they will definitely get use next year.
Anybody else got any “just got very lucky” stories about raffles, drawings, etc.?
Won shotgun in a raffle at a gun show nearly 15 years ago.
Still have it.
Won a free bay window - installed - from a newspaper contest around the same time. Didn’t own a house at the time so I gave it to some friends. They were thrilled.
Back in 2005, my husband got a mailing from Marlboro. It was a sweepstakes thing offering a trip to their ranch – just call this toll-free number before such-and-such date to be eligible. My husband remembered the thing the last day of the contest and asked me to call it in for him. I called around 5 that evening. Fast forward a month or so (long enough to have forgotten the wasted minute on the phone) – husband gets and overnighted package. He had won an all-expenses-paid, plus $1500 spending money (plus loads of other stuff when we got there) trip to the Marlboro Ranch in Montana. Best trip of my life. We now make sure we enter every sweepstakes they send us.
When I was in 4th grade I went skiing with a friend and his family. We stopped at a Dairy Queen about 5 hours from home and I filled out a form for a contest to win a portrait photo package from Sears or some such. I found out a month or so later that I’d won. Not that I was going to bother having someone drive me 5 hours for $20 photo package, though.
Many years ago I attended a dinner to benefit the (now defunct) New Georgia Railroad. I wasn’t paying attention when they were calling out the names for the door prized because I never win anything, so I was in shock when some people at my table got my attention to tell me they were calling my name. I won a stunning floor length dress cape, and got to dance with one of the performers from Starlignt Express.
I won $200 dollars in a newspaper sponsored NHL pick the games correctly type contest. Note that I did not pick the games correctly, but was basically the door prize winner that they drew at random.
They had a contest at work where tickets were given out for certain performance benchmarks. These tickets could be placed in any of about 6 raffle boxes with a different prize for each. I saw a coworker put one ticket in each box, and I half jokingly told her “This is how you do it, maximize your entries for the one you really want”. I put all my six tickets in the DVD home theater box. Later that day they were wheeling it up to my desk.
Who knew that the GE system I won, would have a very similar remote to the RCA TV we use in the family room? Similar enough so that they both have the same code for “power”. Turn one on, and they both come on. I have to trick the DVD player into staying off by turning the TV on behind my back, or another obstruction. Small price to pay IMO.
When I was twelve, I won a call in radio contest for three day passes to the US festival. The US festival was my generation’s Woodstock. I got a helicopter ride to the concert also.
I will never forgive my folks for deciding that a 12 year old should not go to a concert of that magnitude due to all the drugs. I sold those tickets for a pittance to a family friend, took the helicopter ride, bought a roach clip to wear in my hair and went home.
Can anyone spot the irony in my purchase?
Let’s see…when I was a kid I found a $25-winning scratch-off ticket that had already been scratched off laying on the sidewalk in front of a bar.
I’ve won many a pizza from radio contests back in the day. I don’t think I ever ended up using any of the gift certificates. One particular contest, in college, was a 25th caller-type thing to win free frozen pizza and tickets to go see The Princess and the Pebble or something like that. I casually announced to my friends “I’m going to win that,” picked up the phone, and won it. My friends thought I was fabricating the entire conversation with the radio station until they heard my name on the radio. I never picked up my prize, as it involved getting up at 10 a.m. and going to some shopping mall. College kids need their sleep more than frozen pizza and tickets to some movie I don’t want to see.
I’ve also won Gallagher tickets paired with a pizza. I never used the Gallagher tickets, but I seem to recall actually redeeming this pizza.
Oh, and I just wanted to add – my useless talent is winning call-in radio contests. Over the years, I have won the following from calling in to various and sundry radio stations:
[ul]
[li]albums/cds/cassettes too numerous to list[/li][li]a gift certificate for a $500 ring from a local jeweler[/li][li]snowboarding tickets/lift passes/rentals (about 5 of each)[/li][li]movie passes too numerous to list[/li][li]tickets to and backstage passes for a meet & greet with Ricky Martin (during the la vida loca tour)[/li][li]tickets to see Nirvana at a charity event (acoustic)[/li][li]tickets to see Sevendust[/li][li]uhm, gonna just say shitloads of concert passes, that makes the list easier to manage[/li][li]dinner certificates[/li][li]various and sundry trinkets, googaws and junk[/li][/ul]
At one point, I was winning so often that my bf at the time would greet me at the door, not with “hi, honey, I’m home,” but with “so, what’d you win today?”
Clearly, Litoris has all my luck! I almost never win stuff. But I’ve won radio contests twice: once, two tickets to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, just for being the right number caller. Once, I won the soundtrack (on CD) to Evita, for correctly completing the song lyrics to the first couple lines of Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street. Oh, and I won a 50/50 raffle once when money was really tight, so $40.00 was enough to come in really handy!
The biggest thing my husband and I have won is the diamond in my engagement ring. We were just starting to date at the time (a couple of months in), and we went to a Stampede dinner with his company. They had a contest where if you could tell the real diamond from the cubic zirconia, you could enter a chance to win the diamond. I couldn’t tell the difference, but my husband could, and he won it! It was a teeny big awkward, him winning a diamond before we were discussing marriage or anything, but what the heck. We still joke that he can buy me whatever jewellery he likes, because I can’t tell the difference.
(You believe their story about no grasshoppers in Grasshopper? )
The funny thing is, no matter how much I can win radio contests, I have shit luck with the lottery. I used to have ok luck with scratch-off tickets, but not so much anymore. Whenever there is a radio giving away tickets to a show my daughter wants to see, she tries to get me to try to call in, because I tend to do so well with them. I am waiting to see about the most recent Marlboro contests – which would be nice, as the first prize is like $777,777. Meh, since it’s cash, I probably won’t win, though!
)