April 23, 2010

A list of things I've won in contests

  • 4G 20GB iPod
    From a ridiculous and addictive Pepsi/Apple promo in 2004 where they gave away an iPod every hour for two months. Basically your chances hinged on how many people entered in any given hour so in theory your probabilities increased during the midnight hours, though I think I ultimately won in the 6-7pm slot. You were supposed to collect entry pins from Pepsi products, but there was a no purchase necessary survey you could fill out to get free pins. As Pepsi realized how easily people could collect free pins, the survey got longer and more convoluted as the contest went on (also to prevent robot entries). In the really early goings of the contest before the general public was aware, resourceful RFDers (members of the Red Flag Deals community) were winning multiple iPods since there was no limit on prizes to individuals.

  • Alias Season 1 DVD
    From ED magazine in the Edmonton Journal. I think I watched the first episode.

  • Legend DVD
    From Tribute.ca. Still have never seen it. Tribute contests are interesting because there is no limit on entries.

  • Spy Kids 2 VHS
    Also from tribute.ca. I probably entered this because there were better prizes, but I ended up with a Spy Kids videocassette. WOO!

  • Almost Famous DVD
    Can't remember where this came from.

  • 29" TV (can't remember if this was Panasonic or Sony)
    This was for the Grand Opening of Lucky 97 in Edmonton. I can't remember how young I was, but obsessed with filling out entries, probably the only time I've attempted (and succeeded) in winning by stuffing the ballot box. I remember my sister and I sitting at the kitchen table methodically filling out stacks of ballots. The funny thing was 95% of the entries we filled out were under our names with the rest filled out with my parents' names, though I later learned that my sister and I were ineligible because we were both under 18 (rookie mistake!). Luckily it was actually my dad's name that was drawn for the grand prize TV, though I still take credit for filling out the form.

  • One month bus pass
    Every month The Buzzer (Translink's newsletter) gives away a free monthly bus pass. Even though the answer to the contest trivia question is provided within the same mini-newsletter, they only receive about 1000 eligible entries a month so your chances are pretty decent. I think it's a combination of low readership and high reader apathy. But the bus pass was worth $73 (now $81) so it's always worth a shot.

  • Ben Folds Fan Club lottery
    This was kinda weird since I "won" the opportunity to purchase tickets to the Ben Folds Five reunion show in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This turned out to be unbelievably perfect since I had attempted and failed to get tickets the day before when the show originally went on sale (the website crashed under the traffic and it sold out in like 10 minutes.

    Movie Screenings:

  • The Sum of All Fears
    From canadamovies.net, which is now showbizmonkeys.com. This was in the early days of this site and you could seemingly win just by entering. I remember going to the screening with Nickchuck and they were giving out prizes for answering trivia. They had a stupid system where if you knew the answer you had to stand up and shout your name. On the final question, Nick got cheated out of a mug with $100 cash in it by the guy sitting in front of him, oddly also named Nick. They both stood up and shouted at the same time and the MC arbitrarily chose the other Nick who didn't actually know the answer to the question but was whispered the answer by his friend. Even some random dude near us leaned over to tell Nick that he got screwed over since he was clearly first and the MC was an idiot.

  • Capturing the Friedmans
    Another from canadamovies.net. Declined, couldn't go.

  • The Life of David Gale
    Yet another from canadamovies.net. I couldn't go, but instead they gave me tickets to Cradle 2 the Grave and when I went to that screening they also gave me tickets to a future screening of Tears of the Sun, where I won a draw for a Tears of the Sun t-shirt and hat.

  • Red Eye
    From The Westender.

  • Spellbound
    From the Edmonton Journal.

  • The Phantom of the Opera
    A run of engagement double pass from Tribute.ca. Didn't end up using them.
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