I read about this…
Waitresses (at a large national chain) where TOLD (it’s important that it was verbal) that whoever sold the most X would win a new Toyota.
Turned out to be a TOY YODA doll. From Star Wars. I heard the waitress sued and won.
I just short circuit the process by never winning any prize…
Pssst, the proper name for that type device is a “condom”.
Not really to the OP but we had a contest at work about half of us participated in; production challenge type deal. I won and got as a p[rize a thank-you note and four Hershey kisses. C’mon — at least you could have given me a freaking t-shirt or something.
On more what I think the OP means – way back in the carefree days of my youth I entered a coloring contest around a movie that was going to be released “Valley of Gwangi”. You got this coloring-book version of the movie poster basically and went to town. I was one of 25 national winners and got ----- a box of 16 crayons. Forget the fact that it’s a cheap-assed prize for anything “national” but I clearly already had crayons or I wouldn’t have been in the freaking contest. :smack:
I forgot about the toaster.
Back in the 60s, the fire department around here would run a “block party,” with various games booths. In addition to what you usually see at carnivals (“Knock down the bottles and win a cupie doll!”), there were things that were definitely games of chance: several big wheel booths, where you put money on a number and would win prizes. The one I went to was a punch card booth. You paid your money, and stuck a little stylus in a thick card to push out a tiny folded piece of paper. The paper would say which prize you won.
I tried it and the slip said I won a toaster. I remember proudly returning to my parents with the box in my hand. Of course, we didn’t need one (my father sold them in his store), and I was only around 10. We gave it to my grandmother, who used it for as long as she lived in her house.
A few years later, someone realizes “Hey, this is illegal gambling!” and shut down the booths, and the block party ended as a fundraiser.
One store I worked at had a sales contest for two minor league hockey tickets. I won! Then the manager called a BS staff meeting for that night and refused to excuse me so I could go to the game.
Won a new Chevy Cavalier back in 1983 playing bingo. Had 72 hours to come up with $1400 for taxes, license and other assorted fees before they would give me the car. I was unemployed at the time so I ended up with nothing.
As a kid, I won a contest at (I think) the Boy’s & Girl’s Club for 4 Detroit Tigers tickets.
What I got was 4 “buy one bleacher ticket, get one free” vouchers for 4 different weekday games. Even as a kid I knew that was lame.
I’ve got a pretty good one.
I was young, maybe 6 or 7, when my whole family went to a church retreat. There was some sort of four-team obstacle course with a promised great prize for the winning team. I competed my little heart out, and I’m sure no thanks to me, our team (kids and adults) won. They did a drumroll, then announced our prize:
We got to serve cookies and lemonade to the team that came in fourth place! See, we got to show our Christian value of service!
I’m not sure there’s a cause and effect between that contest and my atheism, but it sure didn’t help.
A handful of Rachael Haden’s bass picks.
It was at a private concert by Todd Rundgren, and a raffle was held to cover the costs. There were a whole bunch of cool prizes - t-shirts, signed albums, tour laminates - and I spent $50.
And the only thing I won was some picks.
Reminds me of a “brilliant” stunt played by a local DJ right when Brittney Spears had first hit it big and was the megastar of the moment. He announced that Brittney would be at suchandsuch place at suchandsuch time. It was held in the morning so when local news crews were interviewing people some of the parents said they’d driven all night just so their daughters could meet their idol.
Right on time a limo rolled up and the DJ got out… with a Brittney Spears doll. He said something lame like “Meet Brittney, isn’t she a doll?” cue hordes of sobbing tweenage girls and enraged parents.
The guy never apologized and acted sort of offended that no one laughed at his joke. His career was pretty much shit after that.
There’s kind of a lesson for adulthood in there, though. All that hard work gets you is more hard work for people who don’t deserve it.
When I was 17 I won a free gym membership. Except you had to pay a “nominal maintenance fee”. 17-year-old me didn’t realize it was a scam until I had already signed up. Expensive life lesson learned.
Thread Winner, here!
In junior high, when the Berlin Wall came down, my history teacher told us about an essay contest by…some random patriotic group, maybe the VFW, whatever. The theme was some variation of “liberty, yippee!” At that age I could spin a wondrous web of bullshit when I wanted to, so I entered the contest. The prize was going to be an actual chunk of the Berlin Wall itself.
So, I won. And didn’t receive the piece of the Wall. Was told it would come in a week or so.
Near the end of the school year, I asked my teacher about it. She looked somewhat taken aback. Came in the next day and handed me a chunk of concrete.
I grew up near Chicago. The concrete had part of the Bears logo spray-painted on it. SOMEHOW I doubt it came from Berlin.
You doubt that a Bears fans visiting Berlin as the wall was coming down wouldn’t have tagged the Wall with the logo of Da Bears?
Seems a pretty good prize to me.
I won a Seal-A-Meal food sealer in a raffle when I was 7. It wasn’t a terrible prize in general but I had no use for it obviously. I had fun putting empty bags in and frying them closed for a couple of hours and then just gave it to my grandma who had about as much use for it as I did.
The next year, I won a jug of automotive anti-freeze in the same raffle.
I am not sure what the deal was when I was young and could have used a little help back then but luck is streaky and turns around sometimes.
I have won a ton of stuff as an adult including a set of Bose noise cancelling headphones, a nice BBQ grill, a FitBit, catered box seats to the Celtics, multiple vacation days at work, $400 cash in a 50-50 raffle, premium Red Sox tickets and more money than I could spend during my only trip to Las Vegas. Life needs to be a little more fair and consistent.
Back in the 70s there was a contest on KTVU’s Creature Features in conjunction with the airing of Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth . Viewers were asked to submit their choice for “Who should be the last man on earth?”. I sent in my suggestion for Willard Biscuit, a character from Grump Magazine. I got a nice reply from Bob Wilkins (the Creature Features host) thanking me for my submission and 6 movie passes. Cool!
Imagine my surprise the night when I was announced the winner! My prize: a hand-written note on Bob’s “official” note paper saying “You Won!” and 2 movie passes. Yay.
Yep, the movie does exist!
Many years ago, I was working in an office and there was a company-wide contest for people to come up with money-saving ideas. (One that was unofficially suggested was that a very unpopular member of our department be fired; we didn’t submit that.) I don’t even remember what my idea was, but it would result in more than $100 a year in cost savings, and my prize was
a light bulb painted red
I’ve told this before, but it fits nicely in this thread.
I was an uber-sensitive kid and got hysterical about the “animals in peril” genre – Bambi, Old Yeller, and so on.
In particular, the YA novel “Where the Red Fern Grows,” was distressing (boy gets puppies, they grow up together, doggies die tragic deaths, and stupid red ferns grow on their graves). My elem school showed the film adaptation in assembly every year and mom would come get me early to avoid a psychiatric meltdown.
So I take second place in the state spelling bee in 5th grade and my award was . . . a signed copy of the book, presented by the author himself, Wilson Rawls. Yay.