Hi all,
Saw the changes to the competitions section recently and thought I'd ask the question:
How often do you actually win a competition?
I never enter these things cus I assume there is an overwhelming amount of entries and probably not going to get anything. But I do know "you need to be in it to win it."
I noticed Neil is a frequent poster of the comps and even wondered if he/she enters them all and wins occasionally.
That's funny, 25k is a lot, its's funny how this topic came up because recently I have just received a email from a Nigerian king saying I entered a competition that I do not remember entering. Just gotta reply with my personal details now and the millions will be mine.
Life is good.
DON'T DO IT, IT'S A SCAM!!!!
Don't listen to laurence he is just jealous!
Woosh
Whoos indeed. You do realise he typed in caps.
I agree with laurence, in that some of them are pretty transparently a scam. For example, if the prize is worth $400, they run the comp for 4 months, each entry MUST be made via an SMS that costs 55 cents (at least some of which goes to the party running the comp)…
Well, it's pretty simple maths really.
Anyone that can see the logic in this should "un-neg" poor old laurences comment, above; he's actually correct, for the comps where entry is only via an SMS, the "entry window" runs for a long time, and the prize is not worth a huge amount (i.e., <5k). The peeps running the comp would EASILLY make a profit, from kick-backs from the cost of the SMS entries.
I have just received a email from a Nigerian king
Sorry GnarlyKnuckles, this one really was woosh
Calling someone a wuss is cyberbullying you know memorandum978. ;)
Its woosh, not wuss. Woosh again
In fact, the comment I was referring to was "Whoos indeed.", see above… I guess my comment went "over your head" ('whoosh')… ;-) Too funny.
I'm waiting for my Nigerian princess
Me too piddy-diddy-fiddy, but try to stay "on-message", please. I always do.
What were her expenses (both monetary, and in time)? Sometimes you need to send in an entry form in the post, one per 70c stamp/ 5c envelope, etc… So if she spent 10k on postage costs, and utilised thousands of hours of her time to win 10k in cash plus some random holidays/appliances/vouchers/etc., many of which she cannot use/will just give away, for example, I'd say… not worth it.
Of course I could be wrong.
i enter tonnes of those SMS ones, i use some of my funny money from my mobile plan to enter, never won anything. Probably have sent around 300 entries, if someone used real money would have worked out to be about $150 wasted.
I've enter some radio station ones online, and won some small things, like movie tickets.
Those sms ones are probably scams… or are info harvesting. Be careful
55c per SMS, thousands of entries, big profit, small chance of winning, its the creativity that helps you win.
haha I'd say virtually all competitions nowadays especially the online ones are info harvesting
Good point on the info'-harvesting thingy peaches. Yet another reason why poor "mis-negged" laurence should be thoroughly "un-negged", for his WISE comment (above) suggesting scammage. Even if he did shout his entire message, somewhat unnecessarily.
I thought the "funny money" (i.e., the extra "dollars in call credit") could not be used to enter competitions?
I enter several competitions a week and win something probably four times a year. I only enter small competitions that interest me though. In the past I've won Gucci perfume (from a Marie Claire past readers survey), shoes (Surfstitch), new season heels x 2 (NineWest FB), Maybelline makeup pack (newsletter offer), nail polish and a Samsung 32" tv (Priceline Christmas party raffle). The big ticket competitions for holidays and cash attract the most people, and so its harder to win those. But if you keep trying one day you may be the winner.
The most random competition was at a Westfield where I was shopping and came across a bar that had been set up between stores. It was free entry and there was free wine and ferrero's. Each person who entered got a raffle ticket and could wait until the raffle was called (once an hour) and then two raffles were run and whoever had their number called received two tickets to gold class. I won, and used the tickets on my birthday. That was probably the most memorable prize.
Forgive me for saying so, but all those other ones you "won" seem very chick-oriented/ the type of operation where they essentially give someone something for free, in the hope that they like it and subsequently buy it forever after… I wonder how many other peeps also "won" those comps… not trying to be mean/ rude/ or rain on your parade though… power to ya, and the joke's on them, if you got something for free and did NOT become a subsequent regular paying customer of theirs…
That was a bit sexist of you… The reason why companies have competitions/ do promotions is in the hope that people will like their products and will consider purchasing them in the future.
It's meant to attract people, of all genders (be it male, female, trans etc), what good would it do a company if they limited themselves to only target one gender? I understand that perhaps make-up and that may be more orientated towards females, but that doesn't mean that they're limiting themselves to only that demographic. Although a smaller demographic, there are guys that enjoy make-up or heels and perfume, and I'm sure that the companies would love it if the guys got into that too, it's just more publicity for them and that means more money.
Used to win heaps. Stopped entering within the past few months, it has just become way too hard. People on competition forums go absolutely crazy buying multiple products every single day just to get their entries in. I did the same one time, and ended up with nothing. its a waste of money. one entry is all it takes. Also alot of comps have moved to facebook or twitter and use voting etc which I avoid.
Yeah those voting-based competitions are farcical. I entered a voting-based Open University competition where I created a video and had my friends vote for me. I ended up with the most votes, but they still decided to give someone else the prize. They even modified their Terms and Conditions to allow them to essentially disregard the voting aspect. Big waste of time.
if it is a competition of pure chance i might enter, but i couldn't be bothered with "25 words or less" competitions
Always wondered how they pick out creative type comps.
Those competitions are structured that way to get around NSW gaming laws requiring you to have a permit number & be overseen for random chance draws, hence why you see them so much.
Exactly. Structuring it as a game of skill rather than game of chance means the promoter can avoid having to pay and wait for a permit to be issued.
At the end of the day it's just some young marketing exec who chooses the winner. It's probably part chance anyway.
Ditto. I used to try and write something creative for them (a haiku featuring their product or something), but I cbs any more.
Considering people who rate those "creative 25 words or less" comps are generally uncreative types, don't expect your amazing answers to get you a win. Most people in the world who work, have shit jobs, and most jobs don't hire creative people…
i never win anything :( my gf however, she wins over 60% of things the enters…like what the hell? sure her biggest win was not in the thousands, but a win is a win.
I generally don't bother with competitions but bought about 100 kit kats for an android kit Kat comp. Only won 4 nexus 7s and had to find really creative ways to discard the chocolate. You can read more from Whirlpool.
ha ha…only 4?… how many were on offer?
1000 per country. A lot of dudes won more. Bloody McKenna won 8 I believe.
What creative ways did you find to discard the chocolate? Ps. 4% win rate is pretty damn good.
Over a period of 2 months, I slowly trained my colleagues to consume this poison as food. I found that this was the most effective.
I also won google play vouchers which I then sold on here.
OK, so you MUST have seen (embraced, even?) that 1990's cult-classic movie, "The Young Poisoner's Handbook"…!?! The first bit of your post is pretty much the storyline, in a nut-shell… great movie too… truly an unsung classic.
Don't remind me of that stupid competition. Had around 30 of the suckers and won NOTHING. A generous soul on WP felt bad for me and gave me one of their $5 GP credits they had won.
Was great fun watching everyone else win on WP, though :)
Same here I lost about 20 dollars in that comp but have about 120 in credit on the play store now.
No going to another operating system now
Some people 'only' won one and bought just as many as kit kats. You won't get any sympathy from me, you just sound greedy.
I bought about 70 kit kats & won 'the' Nexus 7 I'm currently typing with and am very happy with it. I also won about $200 something in credit, that I still haven't finished.
I know plenty of people who also won either one or more including my brother who won 2.
I also know people who bought as much as you & didn't win anything!
Awww, BS leo… your "porky pies are burnin!!!"
Not greedy. Wife loved the kit kat and I enjoy the credit.
Besides the lotto I thought I'll give this comp a go and see what I get.
I wanted a nexus as my daughter has taken a liking to my tab2 so I have a lot of kids games and stuff on there for her.
anyway I ill look at getting myself another tablet soon enough.
I only enter competitions which I have a high-er chance of winning, like when they give away heaps of things and its likely that not many people will actually enter it.
Like for example, I won 2 free return qantas flights from Melbourne to Tasmania the other day because they were giving away 2,500 return flights.
I won free berries from coles today too lol. (they were giving away like 1000)
oh yeah I won the free berries too :D
I must say I've been pretty lucky over the past few years. Usually enter a few competitions a week.
My biggest prize was a trip for 4 to Sydney for a World Movies Secret Cinema in 2012 - also included free Foxtel Premium Package for a year.
Other things I've won are a Pure Blonde Esky/Coffee Table, $100 Dick Smith Voucher, movie tickets, CDs.
Also won a cocktail making class where these people from Schweppes came to my house and mixed up some drinks.
If the competition isn't too hard to enter and the prize is worthwhile then I'll give it a try.
I noticed Neil is a frequent poster of the comps and even wondered if he/she enters them all and wins occasionally.
LOL. He/she?
I've only started entering them since we added the improved competition forum. I won my first 2 competitions today. Also just got a free double pass to Maleficent in the mail today. Nothing big yet. :)
My stats:
Entered ~82 competitions however half of them are still open.
Won 2.
While the 25 words or less and the creative ones are a pain, they offer the best chances as its a bit of work to enter those.
We will be improving the competitions section further in the future such as tracking which ones entered etc.
I don't make assumptions on gender. I'd guess you are… male? Haha.
Reminds me of this one article…
http://whatwouldkingleonidasdo.tumblr.com/post/54989171152/h…
"mr. neil"
Hahaha. Good read. I think a name change is in order for Mr. Neil.
You definitely can't make gender assumptions these days, there were 18 boys in the USA last year named Isabella and 14 girls named Andrew!
http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/pregnancy/prepare-for-baby/m…
Yeppers, my daughter named our new budgie "Borris", then years later we found out that, well, our daughter was actually a boy. So yeah, gender assumptions = bad, mmmOK?
then years later we found out that, well, our daughter was actually a boy
Only years? :)
Undescended testes Mr uppity… google it. ;)
neil, I was always think of you as being Neil from The Young Ones ;)
How do you keep track them? Spreadsheets? Most of the ones I enter are on fb so I tab them.
Yeah, nothing complicated. Just a running count in a text file. However, we would like to add some kind of tracking to the competition section here. Whether that involves just clicking an Entered button or adding voting is still to be worked out.
I think not tracking the comps keeps you sane. What I mean is in 2 years you could check and say 'damn, I entered 1,563 comps and… nothing :(' I'd be inclined to wake up one day and see a win and say 'lol, totally forgot about this car I just won!'
But realistically, would be great to see a feature here to show you have entered. Right now, I just subscribe to the thread showing (to me) I have entered.
I track most of my entries, nothing more disappointing than wining where you have to respond within 24hrs (or one for a KK competition) and having it redrawn because you were too late.
Isn't the KK some sort of racist mob starzy :-O
I have not won a comp since Sega Mega Drive and Sonic II give-away.
BP ran a comp every year where you recycled your phone books for a chance to win something, only thing I have ever won in my life.
Ha. What did you win?
Sega Mega Drive II system with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Game! LOL years ago hey many many years, have not even had a win on a scratchie.
This was the very first game I played, on the very first console my family got :) Don't mind me sobbing in the corner.
Holy crap! Gone into vintage status.
crap! my old man chucked out my sega megadrive!
You scored well there amigo (no pun intended), that was probably the equivalent of a PS4 or XBOX-1 when you won it!
I probably enter 50 or so a week and win 1 or 2 but its still fun! I enter mainly smaller type comps too for movie tickets etc. I love the local ones where its only relevant to whoever can get to the shop. My biggest prize was a $1500 shopping spree in my local area which had to be spent in one day - now that was fun!
How did you get it all home?
The prize came with a private shopping assistant who carried all my purchases to my car ;)
Could you have bought gift cards??
My biggest prize was a $1500 shopping spree in my local area which had to be spent in one day
I've always dreamed of winning one of those types of competitions! Like many OzBargainers, I struggle dropping coin on things I want but don't need; if I was forced to spend it… best day ever!
Word, Stiggers… 100%
If its one of those competitions where they put all the envelopes in a big barrel sending it in a big envelope helps your chances!
I won a transformer this way on GWN's saturday morning kid show.
Erm, soz devious, but that's actually not that devious after all… I'm pretty sure they stopped spinning barrels full of envelopes in the 1970's. That said, it could be worth a shot though. Maybes next time I'll try sending my entry in an envelope the size of one of those "novelty cheques" they have on TV… Once they stuff that sucker into the barrel, there's no way any other entries will be fitting in there at all… ;)
never
Yip same here :-(((
Never even won a raffle or a coin toss for free drinks. sob sob
I often think about one day randomly entering a $40m lotto draw. I'm sure it must be about my turn to win something so it might as well be something BIG.
OK Pualy, hang onto your hat, cause you JUST WON SOMETHIN'… I note that like all champions in the world, you live in Melbourne, and it just so happens that I just bought the "Melbourne entertainment book". If you PM me your address (or a PO box/ address of a mate/anyone, if you don't want to PM me your actual address), I will send you ANY VOUCHER OF YOUR CHOICE, from it. Except Papparich (C4). I'm hanging onto that sucker for personal reasons. But any other one, it's yours, and the postage is on me. You can check out what's in it, at http://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/
While most of my OzB posts border on rediculous/ are very tongue in cheek (and I pride myself on that), I really will send you any voucher you pick from the book (except C4), to any address you specify in a PM… because today, YOU HAVE WON.
So let's hear no more of this pouty-wouty "nobody likes me" crap. OK?
Any tips on where to find competitions? And where to find the good ones? I don't watch much TV or read newspapers so I don't see ads or comps very often.
Facepalm … all this time on Ozbargain and I've never noticed that…
Me neither…
It was only recently made into a top level menu item. It used to be under forums.
I never knew it existed! I just spent nearly four hours entering every single non-facebook, non-purchase required competition that was still current and not expired. Fingers crossed!
Let's hope I win a trip to Queensland, Queenstown, Hobart, Thailand, Ireland, Kenya, Italy, Los Angeles, Cairns, Las Vegas and where ever else I choose to go with the 20,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points, $20,000 travel credit, $7,000, $2000, $20,000 and other cash rewards.
That's right. I expect to win ALL of the prizes…….
…….
Cute, neil…
Won a few competitions over the years. Plenty of small stuff, eg CDs, DVDs, kids toys and stuff a few years ago. Also won a $250 prepaid Visa a few years back, which was great.
My best win was an NRL grand final package a few years back which included flights, six nights accommodation in a top hotel and four of the highest category grand final tickets, easily worth a few thousand. Unfortunately we live in Sydney so we weren't entitled to the flights, and we had already booked a holiday elsewhere during the period the final was on! However they were kind and just gave us the accommodation vouchers to use later and we were able to give the Grand Final tickets away to family and friends.
I've started entering plenty of the comps Neil has been posting. Hopefully I win a car or something eventually :)
I usually only enter the ones on Facebook. I enter about 1 a week. Over the past 3 years I have won about $4000 worth. A router, batman lego & T-shirt, Bluetooth Earset, Logitech G13 Gaming keyboard, Laptop Cover, Logitech lapboard, Logitech mice, $300 Juicer, Coleman Chair, Ticket to events, $900 worth Logitech 9000 headphones & Logitech Air speaker, and other things I can't remember.
As they say you have to be in it to win it. I don't go crazy with the competition and find the smaller sites/businesses obviously give you a better chance to win. I hate the ones that want you to do a survey and try to stay away from them.
Wow – nice job!
I won a '25 words or less' comp for a double CD with some EDM on it. Proudest moment of my life :')
CD was called 'In the Club!' mixed by Sam la More (https://www.ministryofsound.com.au/music/release/2010/club-v…)
Entries required why you want to win the CD?
My entry was super corny: "Sam la more has me begging for more in the club"
megusta.jpeg
It won. I still remember that from about 4 years ago. Hahaha.
Proudest moment of your life? I admire your modesty, hombre.
For those who have won reasonable amount of times, how much spam mail do you have flooding your email box? I'm often deterred to enter to avoid marketing and spam email floods.
Definitely use a separate email address for competitions. In fact, probably worth it for freebies and samples as well. Also a good idea to have a separate Facebook account so your friends don't disown you.
Even separate email address sometimes doesn't help! My mother and I have similar names, pretty sure we have missed out on some freebies because they think we are the same person trying to be a pig. As for the friends on facebook issue I always say they have their hobbies and I have mine and tell them not to add or request me if they will have an issue with that. I have multiple emails addresses, one old comping, recent comping and a proper email for job applications etc.
Your mum's name is clarebear too?
Yes thats the downside 100+ spam messages a day and have lost a few Facebook friends along the way lol
Last decent thing I won was last year on Nova FM website, just enter your details to win $500. In this case it paid to read the T&CS because it turned out you could enter as many times as you liked, so I just had Chrome autocomplete the form and ran off a fair few entries.
Best thing I won though was the major prize of a Heineken comp in 2009 - trip for two to Amsterdam including accommodation, some extras and spending money. All I had to do was SMS the code on the card I got with my beer, so it's always worth entering something like that if there's hardly any effort/cost!
Damnnnn. Niceeee
Hi Chickenleg, did you only enter once with that Heineken comp?
Lol not sure what's with bumping this thread from 9 years ago, but from memory I had around 5 or 6 entries. It was a long time ago, longer than this thread you just resurrected.
A friend of mine is a serial comper, she netted 50k worth of prizes 2 years ago, last year was a 'bad' year, she only got 25k, 10k of that was cash.
She enters heaps and is quite creative, works for her.