What Have You Won? Good/Bad, Lottery or Comps Tell Your Story

morse on 09/09/2024 - 20:36
Last edited 11/09/2024 - 19:09 by 1 other user

curious to hear what oz bargainers have won whether through competitions (popular on here), lotteries, raffles or otherwise.

Personally I don’t do sports betting or pokies. However I do like online competitions (25 words or less), raffles, prize homes and lotteries.

So far I’ve won:
Dining vouchers
Vacuum
Fridge
Garden products/tools
A drill
Clothing voucher
Beauty products
Subscription box
Minor lotto wins
and various other things

Nothing major but I do like it even though the time probably doesn’t justify the ends.

Share your wins or regrets!

Update: reading responses to this thread has been lovely - it’s like vicarious joy for all your winnings. Glad I posted this.

General Discussion

Comments

  • altomic on 09/09/2024 - 20:43
    +60

    i've posted 1000+ competitions on ozbargain.

    prizes won so far-
    *a book
    *pair of movie tickets.

    that is it.

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 09/09/2024 - 21:08
      +46

      I signed up for many… and all I got was junk mail and depression.

      Ah who am I kidding the depression was already there.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:08

      Damn! That’s not great returns. All my bigger prizes have been by writing creative 25words or less answers. Plus I’ve had some smaller wins with local magazine and radio station websites. I’ve never won anything from those gleamio ones where you have to follow and sign up to various things.

      • whyisave on 10/09/2024 - 06:29
        +4

        by writing creative 25words or less answers

        so, they actually do judge on the creativity ?

        I thought, that was just a way to bypass some gaming regulations, by making it a game of skill but without a lottery license, etc.

        • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:26
          +1

          Yeah I think some do. I mainly go for word plays and rhymes as that’s how my brain rolls, but the ones that I’ve won I remember thinking even when I entered that I’d come up with something good.

      • RTX9090Ti on 10/09/2024 - 19:10
        +1

        Won countless of freebie soft serve from Hungry Jacks shake n win back in the day!

      • cobknob on 11/09/2024 - 22:53

        Wow. So 25 words or less.. You have examples?

  • Downvoter on 09/09/2024 - 20:44
    +1

    I won a push bike in a comp off here. Worth a few hundred.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:12
      +5

      Nice! Now I’m imagining a t-Rex 🦖 riding a bike. “roar Look! No hands”

  • justworld on 09/09/2024 - 20:50
    +16

    I won a grand off betfair.com by taking advantage of their sign-up promotions. I made accounts for my friends and family and shuffled money around various accounts to get the $100 sign-on bonus. Unfortunately, those sign-on bonuses are now illegal. I also lost half my profits when betfair froze all my accounts. I never had any desire to 'legitimately' bet on betfair as gambling is for losers.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:23
      +4

      Well done! Those online betting scams deserve to be taken advantage of.

    • kiwimex on 10/09/2024 - 21:22
      +2

      Sounds like you took a bit of a gamble!

    • thanatos350 on 11/09/2024 - 21:12
      +3

      Funny they get mad that you took advantage of them while they were trying to take advantage of you. Ultimate Uno reverse.

  • 87percent on 09/09/2024 - 21:07
    +5

    I won $10k on a $5 bet at pokies once. Bought some dumb shit

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:28

      Do you regret buying the dumb shit? Or did it make you happy at the time? I’ve never won a big cash prize but I think I’d just put it in my account towards mortgage, already planned holiday or other expenses.

      • 87percent on 10/09/2024 - 06:42

        I was 19 at the time, so was fun.

        • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:29

          Perfect!

    • Tejas57 on 11/09/2024 - 15:11
      +4

      i won 15k from a $31 table bet (straight flush in Carribean stud)

      brought a new mac pc and went to new york for 2 weeks. well spent

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 09/09/2024 - 21:09
    +10

    Won a free paddlepop, and a free sprite when they used to do those stick and bottle cap promos back in the late 90s…

    • elgrande on 09/09/2024 - 22:55
      +3

      What about a free mars bar?

      • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:19
        +2

        Yes, loved the Mars bar ones! When makes me think back to the days when I’d actually buy a mars bar as a single unit from a shop - something I wouldn’t do anymore.

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 10/09/2024 - 16:05

        true - i never went for mars bars..i was more of a cherry ripe operator even from a young age. I personally even rate bounty over mars bar…and the only thing more messed up than someone rating bounty is someone being a Wests Tigers supporter in the NRL

    • purplelady on 12/09/2024 - 09:34
      +1

      Oh you reminded me on how many paddle pops I bought when they had competition every summer. I probably won 6 soccer balls lol

  • MeesusEff on 09/09/2024 - 21:42
    +3

    Back when I was in year 9, I won a phone from those Girlfriend magazine competitions, they phone s pretty advanced for the time haha

    A sound rocker chair from the uni tav, even though I wasn't 18 yet and had to get my sister to claim it

    $50 gift card from a Homeco Facebook competition

    Husband won an iPhone 6 (current at the time) at work Xmas raffle

    Assuming for MSWA grand prize leskoooo

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:16

      Those are some good ones!

  • Sye on 09/09/2024 - 21:56
    +25

    I just won $9.5 Million in the Nigerian lottery. I can't even remember entering it. All I have to do is pay the $420.69 to get the winnings shipped to me.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 03:31
      +5

      Flick that $420.69 to me, I can make the payment on your behalf.

      • Minimum chips on 10/09/2024 - 13:47
        +4

        Hello I am the tax office police. This man is a thief, I will make safe you payment instead. I will send you a link to buy some gift cards for security.

  • Gills on 09/09/2024 - 23:23
    +8

    I have won free coffee for a year from Maccas. Was entered into draw automatically when purchased coffee via their app.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 02:59

      Nice to see someone wins those ones! I always wonder with the auto entry ones, like at coles and Woolies if anyone actually gets the prize.

      • souljah on 10/09/2024 - 11:50

        Pretty sure we have some sort of law that they have to have a winner. Even if no one claims it i.e. Macca's monopoly lost ticket. They have to have a second chance draw for the unclaimed prizes.

        • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:34

          There is. But I think it only would be looked at if someone made a complaint. I don’t think there’s random auditing or anything. The big companies do probably do it correctly, but I always feel since there are so many entries, no one would ever check.

    • cdaddy on 10/09/2024 - 18:57
      +1

      What are the terms? 1 per day?

  • Luminary on 09/09/2024 - 23:24
    +16

    My biggest wins was a trip to Japan which I couldn't take cos of covid but they gave me $9k cash instead and next biggest was a Macbook Pro.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 02:57

      Those are both great! I’d love to win a trip to Japan. A shame you couldn’t take it, but $9k isn’t bad either.

    • Lucky Lady on 10/09/2024 - 19:59
      +5

      I won a trip around the world in a Mentos competition during Covid. They gave me $15,000 instead.

      • freekay on 12/09/2024 - 15:43
        +1

        username checks out

    • purplelady on 12/09/2024 - 09:34

      WOWWWWW

  • Loopholio on 09/09/2024 - 23:45
    +2

    Many years ago I won $500 from a competition on a bottle of Cheesy Vegemite.

    • InsertCrow on 10/09/2024 - 18:17
      +5

      I'll never get over the fact the competition winner chosen to rename that product for a time was iSnack 2.0…

      • Loopholio on 11/09/2024 - 17:59

        It should have been something like Cheesy McMiteFace.

        • InsertCrow on 12/09/2024 - 05:49

          I voted on Veg-Cheese-Mite, so imagine my disgust when I found out what they chose.

  • MrThing on 10/09/2024 - 00:15
    -3

    I got an inheritance of 50mil from a prince in Nigeria

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 02:55
      +1

      Nice. 50 million Naira would be a nice step towards a house deposit or a high yield investment vehicle.

  • GnarlyKnuckles on 10/09/2024 - 00:32
    +1

    Hey Sir Thong,

    I don't doubt your account of the facts you allude to for even a second, but kindly note that inheritance does not constitute a 'lottery or comp'. Ergo your highly believable claim, most admirable though it is, does not qualify for a mention here.

    Soz

  • solidussnake on 10/09/2024 - 05:43
    +3

    I won plenty of things working at JB, Playstation 4 Pro, Surface tablet, 2x Sonos 1 speakers, Rear Hifi speakers Dali, plenty of Sony speakers and heaps of headphones, catch was it was out of hours unpaid training.

    On the weekends they ran comps where you could win blurays valued at up to $20-$30 where I would come home with about $100 worth of movies and it got to the point where I was doubling up lol

  • Mugsy on 10/09/2024 - 07:06
    +2

    The last physical possession I remember winning was a Red Faction: Guerilla promo pack from Sony. Before that a crappy PC joystick from a raffle, before that a Lego hotrod .

    The last thing I gambled with was my heart… I'm married now so I'll let you decide if I won or not.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:37

      Need to meet or an account m of your spouse to judge if this was a win or not. Guessing it’s a win.

  • Slinky0111 on 10/09/2024 - 07:11
    +5

    I won a free maccas birthday party in 1995 approx from a colouring in competition. Does that count ?

    Apart from that I won at life with my 4 kids.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:39
      +2

      Both count 💯 👏 winning a colouring comp makes you a legend, raising four kids makes you a champion:

  • TrustNoBody on 10/09/2024 - 07:27
    +11

    i won nearly $8k on powerball but the crap thing was i was 1 number off the $12m win i had 27 and it was frigging 28 ..story of my life

    • cheekymonkey97 on 10/09/2024 - 15:15
      +4

      Had the same thing with Saturday lotto except it was $1k… I’d rather get no numbers than knowing I was one number away from an extra $4,999,000…

      • TrustNoBody on 11/09/2024 - 16:31
        +1

        yes ..i didn’t even know cos i only get the newsagent to check my ticket ..(15 yrs ago )..and she said oh you won n then told me the good news about being one number off

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:42
      +1

      I think I fear this way more than winning nothing even though technically I’d be ahead. This is the perils of gambling and why it can be a not so fun experience.

  • Clear on 10/09/2024 - 08:01
    +11

    Won the lotto a few years back. Great for some holidays and mortgage repayments. Helped kickstart my booming business too.

    • SpainKing on 10/09/2024 - 16:39

      So you'd be one of the lotto winners that would rate it as an overall positive life experience, in contrast to those who say it's normally a bad/the worst thing that happened to them (because of friends/family asking for/expecting money)

      • Clear on 10/09/2024 - 17:20
        +1

        It wasn't a division 1 win. No million dollars or anything close. I'm sure if it was I'd probably say the same.

  • Archi on 10/09/2024 - 08:16
    +9

    we won a tray of cooked prawns at the bistro last Thursday from the meat and seafood raffle

  • DingoBilly on 10/09/2024 - 08:22
    +5

    In my life (not including lotto tickets):
    - $2000, lucky draw for filling out survey
    - $200, some radio show giveaway
    - Playstation 5, Gleam comp
    - $100 x 2, Virgin Airlines surveys won twice

    Decent haul, nothing life changing but helps.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:44

      Always a nice boost when it happens.

  • ihfree on 10/09/2024 - 08:25
    +1

    Biggest wins that I can remember are

    • Sonos speaker froma raffle at a conference.
    • few hundred betting on the result of an election
  • CurlCurl on 10/09/2024 - 08:42
    +6

    $8,600 In a Saturday Lotto. I'm not a regular player.

    Two nights in a Newcastle hotel from a radio show.

    • altomic on 11/09/2024 - 09:04
      +2

      Two nights in a Newcastle hotel from a radio show.

      is that really a win?

      • CurlCurl on 11/09/2024 - 09:11
        +1

        is that really a win?

        It was FREE!

  • afah0447 on 10/09/2024 - 08:45
    +2

    Pub raffles:
    - Christmas ham
    - Two cases of beer

  • AngusD on 10/09/2024 - 09:13
    +10

    I won $450 (across 2 separate tickets) in Powerball a few weeks back. Still nowhere near enough to cover the cost of all the other tickets I've bought over the years.

  • singlemalt72 on 10/09/2024 - 09:14
    +4

    360 Cam
    Pool Cue
    Holiday ($12,000)
    Various small lotto wins, most was about $180
    A few years back put $100 on a team to win the NRL premiership at 18 to 1 and came up Trumps
    various meat trays, vouchers etc at the local ex-servies club (probably $1000 in total)
    Recently won a Monster Energy Cap in a Motorcycle comp.

  • brokenxsmile on 10/09/2024 - 09:24
    +11

    I’ve been entering competitions since I was about 19/20 (now late 30s). I’ve had many wins - my bigger wins were pre-Instagram, but still do pretty well each year. Last year I won approx $30,000 of prizes (at their RRP), which included gift vouchers, hotel stays, theatre tickets, so much haircare and skincare, homewares etc.

    My biggest wins ever include:
    Trip to New Orleans for 4, with spending money (WOL entry)
    Business class flights to and from Europe in Qatar (WOL)
    Trip to Cook Islands
    Trip to Bali
    Trip to Iceland (WOL)
    $1000 cash x 2
    Speed queen washing machine

    I don’t tend to enter purchase comps, unless it’s something I’m already buying. Don’t have much luck with them.

    Now most my wins are on Instagram. This fortnight alone I have won $250 Pet Circle voucher, sleep and hydration supplements, 4 pack premix vodka drinks, skincare serum, $100 pizza voucher, laundry liquid and pods, spa/sauna voucher and skincare set.

    It’s a game of persistence and numbers really.

    • FaLLeN25 on 10/09/2024 - 12:09
      +1

      How do you find the various IG competitions, I enter those for the brands I follow, but tend not to stumble across them regularly.

      • brokenxsmile on 10/09/2024 - 15:12
        +1

        I have a group of people who tag each other, so over time you find heaps of them/get tagged in heaps. I also have a Lottos dot com dot au membership which has quite a few posted by members.

        • TrustNoBody on 11/09/2024 - 16:36

          i used to be a member of that lottos…have u won on that

    • blueyez on 13/09/2024 - 20:42

      What's WOL?

      Also nice prize haul damn!

  • YTW on 10/09/2024 - 09:43
    +8

    Never won a raffle but you can bet my name will come out of the jury ballot box every freaking time.

    Been called up 6+ times and every time I've made it to the courtroom stage my name has been picked in the first three out of the box.

    Oh, and when I was 10 I won a $25 Fosseys voucher in a writing competition. I was thrilled as I got to buy a new outfit - a rare event back then.

    • AngusD on 12/09/2024 - 08:45

      6 times? That's crazy. How old are you? Are you able to refuse if you've already done it within the last X years or something like that?

      I'm 48 and never been called. Not that I'm complaining. If called up I'll probably try to get out of it using the Homer Simpson trick of saying that I'm prejudiced against all races.

  • SlickMick on 10/09/2024 - 09:53
    +3

    I won a fancy Canon camera and a trip for 2 to Vivid here. Unfortunately, of the 3 entries I submitted, it was my daughter's entry that one, and she took my wife on the trip, and the camera of course.The photos looked like it must have been a great prize though.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:22

      Good on you for being so generous to your family. I’ve always had in my head if this happened we would pay for the rest of the family on the same holiday. But it’s not always practical or cost effective.

  • jrjr on 10/09/2024 - 10:08
    +11

    Won a car during covid which was nice, sold it to a dealership for about 50k.

    Also won an iPod nano at the Melbourne show when they were still new, then about 5-6 years later I found out they recalled them so I dug it out and swapped it over a (at the time) brand new iPod nano model, was pretty happy with that.

    Have been reasonably lucky with competitions over the years (although the car was more of a game of skill)

  • sharkyoz on 10/09/2024 - 10:30
    +5

    diddley-squat

  • smartazz104 on 10/09/2024 - 11:34
    +3

    I won a Planet of the Apes DVD Collection from a Herald Sun competition many, many years ago.

  • TerryJustTerry on 10/09/2024 - 11:46
    +6

    Won a trip to Mexico for 2, was planning to take GF but ended up taking brother (GF doesn't like hot temps). was amazing and very relaxing :D

  • Duram on 10/09/2024 - 11:53
    +19

    Ubank had a promo when they were new if you bought a newspaper that weekend you would get a 20 dollar credit into your ubank account, I think it was more to attract new members, but it wasn't limited to new accounts.

    I read the TC's and C's and couldn't see anything stopping me from buying multiple newspapers, I drove around at 5am from shop to shop buying all the newspapers I could while the missus smashed the codes in over the phone. Made like 2-3K.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:04
      +2

      Amazing!

  • Hangryuman on 10/09/2024 - 12:09
    +4

    milady says she's lucky because she's a Sagittarius

    she's won a few things of value, but the one I like most was maybe the only time she ever filled in a coupon she found attached to a supermarket bottle of Johnson & Johnson shampoo - filled it in, sent it in (remember paper mail?) - and won a return trip from Sydney to Tokyo value around $1000

  • Buckshot on 10/09/2024 - 12:17
    +11

    I won $150,000 a few years ago in a disability lottery, and more recently, $20,000 in powerball.

    I regularly get small wins/experiences but they're the big ticket wins.

    • kaleidoscope on 10/09/2024 - 14:31

      how much did you spend on them?

      • Buckshot on 10/09/2024 - 14:33
        +2

        $150 on the disability one, about the same on Powerball.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:02
      +1

      You’re doing well! Congrats!

      • Buckshot on 10/09/2024 - 19:05

        I've been very fortunate. Thank you!

  • Uncle Roger on 10/09/2024 - 13:31
    +6

    When I was 16, I was one of 10 winners of Coca Cola's "Coke Unleashed: Experience The Beat of London"
    2 return tickets to a Darren Hayes concert, accommodation included. Valued at $10k.

    Was cool :d

  • SydneySwan on 10/09/2024 - 13:42
    +2

    I won the 2019 NRL tipping competition sponsored by Red Energy. Prize was $7K - 5K cash and 2k credit towards your Red Energy bills..

  • S2 on 10/09/2024 - 13:44
    +5

    At one point, I was very interested in self-improvement guidance. One of the guidance I received was to be charitable. So that Christmas, I decided that I would donate any coins I had to charity if I was asked. Eventually, I was asked to enter a raffle because it was getting drawn soon, so I did. They clearly had thousands of entries in the raffle. It's the only lottery I've won and I remember receiving:
    A TV
    Two kids bikes
    Multiple bed sheets
    A car trailer with cage to take everything home
    A camping fridge
    Lockable bike basket
    There were multiple other little items. Most of which I gave away.
    One lady offered to buy the TV off me straight away, but I opted to keep it.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:01
      +1

      This is such a lovely story. Very nice indeed.

  • kaleidoscope on 10/09/2024 - 14:31
    +5

    Not so lucky here…

    We've pooled in moneys for lottos here and there and has won nothing at all…

    The closest to any comp I've won is applied for an eating contest at a local restaurant and gotten a free meal out of it and me face went up on their 'wall of shame' for not completing the meal haha!.

    • morse on 10/09/2024 - 19:00
      +1

      Maybe you’re due for a win 🤔

      • kaleidoscope on 10/09/2024 - 20:02
        +2

        🫶

        haha thanks! lets hope so. If i do win though, it’ll change lives of fair bit of people for good

        • morse on 10/09/2024 - 20:05
          +2

          Wishing you a win! Sounds like you’d do good with it.

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