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.
I entered a competition at my local drive through bott-lo and won a Johnny Walker cricket bat and cricket bag. I was 1 of 6 entrants :).
Next competition I entered at the same place was to win a Poker Table. I won that too as I was 1 of 4 entrants :P. I like those odds. You had to buy a specific brand of Whiskey, i bought the competitors brand and the guy let me enter anyway……
Do you put your real mobile phone number in, getting a few private/weird number calls at random times in the day and i usually never pick them up
I win on a pretty regular basis when I can be bothered entering 25 words or less mainly movie tickets small things. Also look for competitions with more than one step eg buy two products and then enter bar codes or post off. Cuts down the competition heaps.
Biggest prize - after winning tickets to the sydney bridal expo I then won the wedding package with about 10 coupons clipped from the newspaper by patients at the hospital where my mum worked. I put about 300 in for my cousin who was getting married but thought I might be lucky. I actually wanted 2nd prize (trip to Thailand) but it was a lovely package worth $20000.
I used to win on the radio but I don't listen as much now with music streaming etc. Should start up again.
Some of the major wins I've been lucky enough to win:
Won a trip to Bali in late 2009 thanks to channel V (online entry).
Won an overnight trip to Melbourne to watch an AFL match in 2012 thanks to Virgin Australia (Facebook entry 25 words or less).
A meet a great and concert tickets to 30 seconds to mars thanks again to channel V (online 25 WOL).
An overnight hotel stay in a club room from the hotels Facebook page (saying why you liked the city).
Plenty of small prizes like movie tickets, gift cards, and other random bits and pieces.
You have to be in it to win it, drives me mad when I hear people whinging when they don't win for a while, be great-full for even the small wins and for the previous big wins.
I just won $5000 through the AMEX competition where every $50 spent at a participating retailer gets you an entry. Apart from that and registering your card, it was easy for me as I was buying stuff for the new house. Don't normally enter competitions but as others have pointed out, you've got to be in it to win it.
i win when a hack has been posted on ozbargain :)
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/131568?page=3#comment-1813…
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/127157
While me and the toaster evidently have very different tastes, I agree with him entirely re "winning" via the occasional OzBargainer post that turns out to be a real bonanza for me… The latest one in my case was the "variety-8-packs" of booze for $10 a pop (craft-beers, cider, etc.)… that deal was magic; saved me hundreds, AND facilitated a very nice break from drinking the usual cheap shite that I stubbornly stick to based on price. So I guess "winning" is a relative concept…
Nice one toast, you make a wise point here.
I propose a tonester… to THE TOAST.
I don't enter competitions very often but in saying that I have won some. The most memorable win would have to be my 5th gen 8gb ipod nano which I won in 2010 - it's still going strong to date and I have used it pretty much everyday since I won it
I get regular phone calls and e-mails saying I won $1,000,000 USD or $1,000,000 GBP from competitions I did not enter.
The ones I did enter, I didn't win anything.
I always thought winning competitions was up there with those national statistics and polls - I've never been called so I assume they can't be real :) My grandma used to win a lot of meat trays when she was younger so I know meat raffles are real - but I think her lack of senility gave her an unfair advantage. Personally I've only ever made it to Stage 2 or 3 of the Readers Digest competitions without even applying - 5 years in a row, but I guess I was just lucky :p.
I haven't applied for a competition in years since
(a) "You'll Love Coles"-products don't have any competitions
(b) I'm too proud to post a video of myself for something I don't really care that much for in the first place
(c) I don't watch TV, listen to radio, I use AdBlock Plus in my browser and I'm generally cynical about promotional materials.
(d) I've forgotten about comps. Thanks for the reminder - I was looking for some form of supplementary income.
My advice to save money: eat pumpkin. It's very cheap, AND filling. Keep an eye on yer wife though.
Used to comp more and win more; my best year was a car and a trip for two to Vegas, and other minor prizes.
My washing machine, my oven and the Westfield card that purchased my cooktop all courtesy of comps.
It is a numbers game, the more you enter the more you win.
25WOL are good as fewer people make the effort. The car was a comp where you had to make a purchase and also do 25 WOL, the more effort required to enter the better your odds.
It is a nice way to win experiences you would normally not get to do; a couple of years ago won a trip to Canberra to meet a cheetah which was just lovely.
Still win loads of movie tickets
I never even took notice of the competitions thread. What a dunce! Thanks to this post for brining it to my attention. Let the contest winning begin!! :p
I feel the same way now. Hahah.
I won a lifetimes supply of Rip Curl thongs in every colour of the rainbow. Thanks Ozbargain!
I don't enter much but my most memorable win was one night out in Fremantle, they had some of those pub promo girls at the Newport Hotel for Corona. Fairly simple, buy a Corona, get a ticket, take ticket to promo girls, get a small prize (stubbie holder, keyring, beanie, etc.) then write your name on the back of the ticket for the second chance draw to be drawn that night.
Whilst chatting up the promo chick she basically just started giving me tickets to which I filled out and ended up winning the second chance draw which was a first gen Ipod Nano about a month before they were officially out in stores, a shirt, hat, beach towel and some misc other prizes. I obviously came home with a bunch of the promo giveaways too. I must admit I did feel sort of guilty winning because I hadnt really bought all those Coronas to get the tickets but I wasn't going to say no to the prize either.
This is the best part though, at the end I was told to "go onto the website to see your photo with the girls as the winner", I really just wanted this pic with all my prizes for my facebook tbh so I made the effort to look when I got home. Instead they had one of those 25 words or less how and why you enjoy Corona. In my 'effort' to collect tickets win this prize and my subsequent drunken stupor I don't even remember what I wrote, nor even entering and never thought anything of it. A few months later a PSP and 5 games rocked up at the door. Fairly successful night out on the town ;)
Otherwise i've won a few raffle baskets and movie/gig tickets but never anything else as significant as that night out.
I do remember the first thing I ever won too, it was a movie ticket to Blank Cheque from Agro's Cartoon Connection. So much sexual innuendo for a puppet on a morning childrens television show haha. Don't think they could get away with that today.
I just won an Ipad Air over a competition (February 2014) from a bank by just filling out a survey for them. I never really waste my time filling out surveys but I did that time and forgot all about it (sometime November/Decemeber 2013). When I came back from my holidays, there was a lot of missed calls on my work phone and some voice mails on mobile phone. If I just disregarded the messages, my prize would've been forfeited.
First win ever was when I was 11-12 years old and won a DBZ movie from K-Zone for sending them a letter they published. I was so stoked. Other than that, won a few movie tickets and plushies from a raffle.
Winning a DBZ movie would have made you feel like a boss at the time!
I won $3000 total from a radio competition where you had to guess what song they were playing from a tiny snippit. I won it two christmas eves in a row. Great Christmases
When I was a kid I won a gameboy advanced soccer game from a magazine but didn't have a gameboy advanced, my parents were so shocked they bought me one.
I wish life worked that way too.
You:"Mum! I found a set of car keys on the road"
Mum:"Oh, really? Let's go out shopping tomorrow and buy you a car too" :P
You mean it doesn't work like that??? :(
Of course it doesn't work like that. He WON a set of keys, then it would
Would it be considered winning if a set of keys magically falls into his hands?
I'll enter some competitions every now and then. A few things I've won over the years: an Easter raffle (a small crate filled with tissue paper and a few chocolate eggs on top plus a toy duck/chicken - I was 9 at the time, was very pleased), a Jennifer Lopez CD, a house/dance compilation CD, and a Logitech iPad case a few months ago (I don't have an iPad).
haha that was a good read
I entered a competition a few years back with blackmores to win an ipad 2. I only entered because I was at the shop, and saw the pamphlet and my mum was buying a whole lot of blackmores stuff. Was surprised to get a call 2 weeks later saying I had won! They sent me the ipad in the mail, it got lost. I chased it up and 2 months later, they sent me another one. Best (and only) thing I've won!
I try but I dont think I have a lucky bone in my body.
Only won something once and that was to a Grinspoon concert - The tickets arrived 2 days after the concert :(
See no luck.
aww.. no Grinspoon for you, Sadfork
I am pretty bad at competitions and unlucky I suppose! Recently have been bored at work so entering lots, a few small wins (a double movie pass to Belle, and 2 DVDs which are yet to arrive) have come my way. My dream win would be a trip somewhere amazing!
I won a DVD from a '25 word or less' a few days ago from madman, I win one or two things of this value a year. The highest value I've won is double passes to concerts.
The biggest won was a trip to Europe flying a business class. Plus $5000 spending money. The competition was entered daily during The Australian Newspaper competition ( i think it was run for 1 month). I love this competition, basically buy the newspaper and entered the code which is given the next day. I participated for few years but did not win. So in that particular year i asked my wife just to fill one form and that only one form was a winner!! Yea, she does win competition often. Believe or Not some people just lucky to win again and again. When she was a teenager she won a motorbike draw, if we go to local club and entered a competition she often win something while my ticket does seem to be ever call…. This happen more than 10 years now i learn where to put our money now :)))
never won anything but I dun enter many comps in the first place
I won a Tooheys Extra Dry fridge with a TV in the front last week, been the best thing i have won ever.
Used to enter competitions. Most of them are now just farming your details to try and sell you something. So I don't enter anymore.
I won a wild turkey poker table and chips. It was a promotion that they were running for about a month, where every hour they'd give away the poker pack. You just had to buy a wild turkey drink at the bar and then you'd get a code you could sms in or enter it on the internet.
I set my alarm for like 3 in the morning on a school night when not many people would be entering. It worked for me.
Please run for PM of Australia!
Cannot upvote due to statute of limitations!
My old folks enter every single competition as their job in retirement.
Goes like.
Step 1. Enter competition
Step 2. Follow step 1 50 times a month..
Watch all sorts of things arrive.. :P Parents scored me a Playstation 1 once :)
I doubt any one has won anything of any significance. Ie more than $100 in value. These people posting they won cars and what not. 50 k per year or more prob work for the comps …. That's just my take on it. Play lotto if ur gona do anything. Iv won 1.4million. But I don't think that counts as a comp.
Of course you did.
Believe what you want T1000, leaves more chances for the rest of us
I once won a double pass to watch some snowboarding movie and attend a VIP event with some famous snowboarder. I only got the tickets a few days before the event, and I have no interest in snowboarding really, so I did a quick search, found a snowboarding forum, made a thread and gave the tickets to the first dude that responded. Because it was only a day away, I organized to meet the guy at the closest train station half an hour before the event started. He was so thrilled to get the chance to go, he was full on dressed up in a 3 piece suit, and organised to meet his friend there, all on the brief word of some anomn on a forum. Could easy have been a prank.
I probably could have sold the tickets for $100+, but there was no time and I was only 16. At least they went to somebody who was really passionate about it, rather than me who would have slept through the documentary and pigged out at the complementary snacks table. Still probably the best thing I've won.
That was such a nice thing of you to do. A lot of effort to give away something to a complete stranger. You deserve to be rewarded with many good Karma points.
This place is really turning into reddit.
You. You win in Life.
Never won anything
I enter a few competitions every day, mainly random chance and 25WOL. We win probably weekly? This month we've received tickets to the X-Men Premiere, Better Homes & Gardens Show, a $$$ High Tea, an awesome pizza necklace, a serum, tickets to opening night at the St Kilda Film Festival and a few other things off the top of my head.
My best wins are for a crafty workshop, 100WOL, and C&E's V'Day competition in 2013. The best things to win IMO are tickets, it's how I got into opera and MSO concerts. Also I think the ultimate win (not in terms of $$) is getting a box of TimTams in the mail!
Have yet to win anything big.
I won tickets to sexpo when they used to be on every year
It was a 25wol in one of my people magazines
It was awesome
The only time I have ever won a competition was the McDonalds Suzuki Swift give away. Got upgraded to a 2014 Swift Navigator for doing some media stuff. Not too bad!
WOW!you're hot!!!! or is that your wife? ;)
What? :s
Do you realise there were more than 28 people who won cars, right?
Do you realise there were more than 28 people who won cars, right?
I just assumed you were the prettiest one ;-)R u saying that's not you :(
Hank Hill's "Bah-Ha!" …I am a man…
About 5 years ago when my mum was a stay at home mum she'd go berserk with competitions, mostly 25 words or less ones.
Within a couple of years she won a holiday to Tahiti, Cook islands & $10,000 cash. And many small things like TV's, Asics runners for the family etc. Now she's working full time again and can't be bothered with them.
I won a $600 tradies radio at Tough Mudder a couple months ago. however this probably isn't what you mean, considering it was a competition of strength rather than randomness.
Back when I was 8-years-old, I entered one of those "fill in your details & drop in the box" competitions at Kmart and ended up winning a Ford Capri.
Since then (I'm now 31) I've entered probably less than 30 competitions and have scored a $1200 mountain bike, an all-expenses paid trip to the NT, a $500 voucher at a plant nursery and random concert & movie tickets.
I should enter more competitions but don't really have the time.
Can I rub your belly for some good luck of my own?
Won a signed CD from a Warped Tour Australia Facebook competition but they never delivered.
My brother and I entered a Hell's Pizza comp where you had to make a video. He came first, I came second. He won an amazing 1967 Buick Skylark. My prize? A free pizza. Sick.
Prepare to be amazed fellow Ozbargainers! For those alive at the time, cast your mind back to the 80's. Remember the Countdown magazine (spinoff from the iconic TV show)? I desperately wanted to win the U2 competition, which I think included a biography and/or some other autographed merchandise. Entered some other comps at the same time, just because. How thrilled I was to receive an autographed album - yeh the vinyl thingies - by A Flock of Seagulls. Ahh those were the days.
Over 10 years ago, I won a Beyblades DVD, Stuart Little plush toy, and Crayola Crayon set from K-Zone magazine. 3.5 years ago, I won an iPad from au.shopping.com after writing a product review.
I don't think I've entered any since getting a job. work + uni + a bit of social life keeps me too busy.
I won at the lottery of life …I think. Does that count?
Rarely aha
One of my ex colleagues have been addicted to writing competition. He basically enters every one of them and he was saying since he won very often he get to know other similar competitor quite fondly. He get to go vacation at least once a year and won some pretty major price like cars money and full year supply of free banana. I remember him bringing lots of banana every day for our office supply. I supposed he can clear 50k each year from this competition
When you say "writing competition", do you mean he has to write something, then submit it for consideration, and if it's the best piece of writing sent in he wins? Is it fictional writing only, or is factual stuff OK too? Methinks I'd like to enter such competitions…
Please advise, antzz
Most often writing comps have an entrance fee. I think $5-$10 is the norm. Just something to keep in mind.
I entered three competitions in the last year….
A meat raffle (I'm a vegetarian so it was for ironic purposes).
Movie tickets.
"$7000" holiday to the Gold Coast for a week on the radio.
I won the meat tray, the tickets, and the trip…. :)
There was a lady who also won the trip who was competition mad - that weekend she had tickets for two music events and had just won a $50k trip around the US. Nuts!
ETA the $7000 is in quotes as an as OzBargainer I would have gotten it cheaper :P
I reckon we all won a prize with the Jacobs Creek Promo. I still shake my head wondering how on earth it was worthwhile for them.
I've won little prizes - $200 woolworths gift card from doing a survey, baby carrier, silver baby cultery set, kid's suitcase, kid's shoes, revlon foundation.
Never won anything huge though….but I'm waiting. I think I'm due for a big win. ;)
I won $500 with a pringles facebook naming competition. Not sure if it counts but twice my plane was overbooked and I got 420 pounds and $440aud, with free accommodation, food and taxi transfer. Other than that, never won anything, not even for the small division prices on powerball.
I enter one roughly every 6 months. The best contest I won was a facebook contest for SimCity. The question was to say what you would do if you were mayor of a SimCity, I wrote something along the lines of "I would make campaign promises I can keep. High density cities and a monster invasion once a month" and I got free flight from Melbourne for me and my friend and we got a free dinner on EA's tab (lots of drinks haha) and got to play SimCity before it came out.
"I would make campaign promises I can keep"
Something that EA can't do, apparently. Sick prize though!
I just won something yesterday.. A pair of chopsticks.. since they got so many prizes left anyone that enters will probably win a pair of chopsticks, if you buy their product
I win chopsticks every time I go to the food court :)
I've entered a "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" competition years ago. It was one of those SMS a secret code word to go into the draw.
The prize was a 40" Sony Bravia LCd TV, playstation 3 console and 10 blu ray movies.
I recorded the game show so I could watch it when I finished work. When I saw that competition I was like "oh man, I want that playstation 3" and I wasn't even interested in the other stuff.
So I used the last $6 of my phone credit and mind you, I entered this around midnight. Then the next day I received a phone call from Mix 102.3 radio station (SA) and they asked if I was listening to their station this morning and I said no I was still asleep. They mentioned my name on the radio and that I won the competition!
So after that, I find that competitions aren't always rigged.
The tv back then was worth $5000 as it was one of the very first Bravia TVs that was released
What was the Jacob's Creek promo?
Was a member of lottos.com.au for a year and a 'lazy' comper who only entered pure chance competitions - about 350 over the period. All I won were some movie tickets and a bottle of shampoo and conditioner. Waste of time, basically.
For it to be worthwhile, you need to enjoy and have a knack for 'words or less' comps, or have some other angle, such as browser scripting skill to exploit the occasional unlimited entry comp.
For competitions that involve a product purchase, I've entered far fewer (maybe 10 or so every few years) but had more success, winning some $100-250 gift cards, so I'd say those are worth entering if they show up on a product you regularly buy.
The greatest promotion ever devised in Australian history
The Kit Kat Android Nexus 7 Tablet (2013 model) Competition
/end thread
As of today you can record your competition wins on OzBargain - see thread discussion. Surely we have more winners here than Neil and Hamza23?
1 entry in Skyy Vodka sent me to San Francisco this May, thank God! And I helped my wife win us a Swiss trip when I made a poem after buying just 1 Lindt block. One entry in just works fine.. 😇
thanks Chickenleg! your username is making me hungry lol. 6 is a great number, hopefully a lucky one for me..pardon my curiosity but did you enter at intervals (i.e. beginning, middle, last day)? did you enter any more holiday comps since then?