The mentions of slots and other type of winnings remind me of one of the first things I “won”.
When I was about 10 years old my sister and I were walking to school when we saw an instant lotto ticket on the ground. The play area was scratched off, but the play area revealed the ticket was a $2 winner! I’m thinking the person who bought the ticket didn’t think it was worth it to cash it but, to a couple of 8 and 10 year old kids, it’s the coolest thing ever! Since we couldn’t very well cash it like normal people (ie walk in somewhere and present the ticket), we mailed it in, and got a $2 cheque mailed back to us a few days later. It was a very cool moment to a kid.
I won a trip for two to London for the premiere of the last Superman movie. My wife took her sister and I had to take time off work to care for our son.
Add to my list a box I got the other day from UPS containing a Tim McGraw CD, hat, tshirt, keychain, and license plate holder. Also, I hate country music. Fortunately, I know lots of people that love it and so I can give it away and make myself look soooo nice.
I’ve won tons of stuff: TVs, stereos, and hundreds of smaller items. The most expensive was a pair of emerald earrings I was able to sell for $2,000.
Entering sweepstakes and contest was virtually a second profession for my dad, as a Brink’s guard he had the perfect job for it. The would drive around Chicago picking up cash from grocery and drug stores, and while one guy would be handling the money transfer, Dad would stroll up and down the aisles stripping the store bare of entry forms from all kinds of retailers. He would fill them out on the drive between the stores. He was actually on the clock being paid while he did all this. And he entered these things using all our names.
He won at least three $10,000 cash prizes, a Ford Explorer, and god knows how much other stuff. One contest he won more than 100 times – the condolence prize, a basketball. So there was a spare bedroom literally filled halfway to the ceiling with basketballs, which we eventually gave to a local community organization. When he died we found 4 TVs in his basement that he’d never even taken out of the boxes.
Winner! I’m totally envious - I listen every week.
I don’t know if it counts as “winning”, but I’ve gotten a perfect 800 score on the Verbal section of the Graduate Record Exam. Twice.
Well, the most expensive thing I ever won was a $2,300 tanzanite on a Mexico cruise.
However, the best thing I ever won (which is an iPod) comes with a story. The story is that at an industry tradeshow, our competitor, who had effectively stolen some of our technology through a key employee leaving many years before, was bragging about a certification his (stolen) technology had gotten. This certification was of no value to the defense customer community who he was trying to sell it to, and the guy in general was a jerk. Someone in the crowd even asked me, “what does that certification get them?” To which I had an awesome comeback that the competitor heard, which was “it gets them two things, Jack and Shit”. He then proceeded to hand out prize tickets to everyone in the crowd to raffle off an iPod and I had the winning ticket. So having just insulted the guy, he then had to give me his main giveaway prize. The best part was that the organizers of the tradeshow where this occurred took a picture of the event and the expression on the guy’s face was priceless - it looked like he just ate a shit sandwich. We printed it and I had it up in my office for close to a year after that.
I had the highest score in California for an eighth grader on the SAT combined and verbal in 1982. (I later dated the guy with the highest math score.) I won a dictionary which is still in my office and used fairly regularly, and a one-volume complete Shakespeare that I cannot read without a magnifying glass.
I was a National Merit Scholar.
I was the New England and Eastern US Amateur Smooth ballroom dance champion in the 90’s (don’t remember the exact years).
A long time ago, back when Magic was simple, one of the local stores had a tourney idea. Five tourneys, each one worth one mox. And the person with the best combined finish gets a Black Lotus. Each tourney was about 40 to 50 people
Type 1: mono red Burn deck with Flunkies, fanatics, pups, and all kinds of bolts No p9. - win Mox Ruby.
Type 1.5 : Same deck, win a mox sapphire
Type 2: Same deck with less good bolts. come in second
Some other format:(Extended?) same deck, ok bolts. Come in fourth.
Last format: booster draft. Tried to draft mono red. Failed. did not advance.
I had actually locked down the lotus after the third tourney. I ended up having to sell them to cover 400 dollars in rent a year later. The current retail value of the cards is about 2500 dollars. The cost of the deck that won me all those cards? About thirty dollars. Five of which was for sleeves.
Well, just recently I won in a sweeps a new ‘top of the line’ Frigidaire dishwasher. I just won it last month, so I have not yet received it, although the prize has been confirmed. I also won a ‘year’s supply’ of Cascade Complete dishwashing soap. I did receive the coupons for that part of the prize in the mail already. However, what they sent me was a booklet of 12 coupons, each one good for one package. So I guess that they assume one package a month for 12 months constitutes a ‘year’s supply’. There are only 16 packets per package. So apparently they think most people only have to wash dishes every other day! :eek:
Still, it’s a nice prize and I am totally not complaining! Can’t wait 'til I get my new diswasher!
Various judo tournaments. I’ve won prizes in drawings - nothing big.
My daughter won a TV when she was four years old. They called on her to give a speech. She said, as trained, “Thank you” in a nice loud voice and got a big ovation.
We went to a fair for my kid’s school. There was a chin-up contest. It was divided up by ages. I paid my $5 or whatever it was, and asked which age division I was in.
They had to make up a new division - the Masters - because no one else was as old as me. I was 43 at the time.
By golly I was going to win the overall crown or die trying. I did, too, by one chin-up.
My prize was a Vikings sweatshirt, size Small. I couldn’t even get the thing over my head.
Wouldn’t you expect the winner of a chin-up contest to have an upper body bigger than the average?
A trombone. Strictly speaking, it was some other instrument, but the music store let the school trade it for a trombone, which I played. I don’t remember why the school won it, and not me. It was my entry ticket. But, it was mine for two years, and it was one of the F-key trombones that I sorely wanted.
When I was about 13, I won a cake at a cake walk. I thought it was so great. At that time I was not familiar with the connotations of “cake walk”, so it was a sweet victory!
My husband called me at work and told me that he had picked up the mail, and he’d won a year supply of Diet Pepsi in the Second Chance Sweepstakes. I was happy for him and stuff. He waits a minute and tells me that I have the exact same envelope there at home…he opened it and I had won too.
FWIW: A year supply of Diet Pepsi wasn’t really all that much Pepsi. I think it was twelve coupons for a “cube” (24 cans I think?) of Pepsi…so less than a Pepsi a day.
