Comments on: 10 Seconds to Free Stuff

By: spicoli

spicoli — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:28:50 +0000

I’ve entered a lot of contests but I have never won any. I suppose it would be worthwhile if I ever won anything that I could use.

By: Horlic

Horlic — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:01:48 +0000

Congratulation to you! I wish to be next one.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:16:34 +0000

I generally enter contests run by organizations I believe in or would support anyway, even if I didn’t have a chance of winning anything. So nearly every contest I enter has some sort of entry fee. If I win, great. If not, well at least I know the money’s going to a good cause. As you can imagine, I enter a lot of raffles, and I’ve won a lot of terrific prizes, including but not limited to: wine, movie tickets, concert tickets, dinners, theater tickets, books, magazine subscriptions, and a gas card.

I’ve never won anything so valuable that I had to pay taxes on it. But that reminds me of something that isn’t directly related to this thread but is kind of interesting anyway: Back in high school, a friend of mine won a super expensive car from a Boston radio station during a call-in show. She didn’t enter any contest. She just called the station and answered some music trivia question. I’m pretty sure she won either a Ferrari or Lamborghini. She was in high school and couldn’t afford the taxes or insurance, so she opted instead for a less valuable cash prize. Her family built an addition on their house with the $$$. Another friend of mine won $1000 from the same station–just for being the right caller at the right time. So call those radio stations!

By: Persephone

Persephone — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:29:42 +0000

Contests are fun, but now I always consider the tax aspects before I enter. Once I won a vacation (which I did enjoy), but when the 1099 came along I was surprised. In retrospect, I woudn’t have claimed the prize had I contemplated the tax liability.

By: fern

fern — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:48:58 +0000

It’s a waste of time to enter national contest or those otherwise on the internet. You’ll never win.

I do enter contests when i see them when they’re local, like the quilters in my hometown doing a raffle for a quilt, and that sort of thing. Your odds are more like 200 to 1 vs 2 million to 1.

By: Ann

Ann — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:23:09 +0000

I’ve never won on those kinds of things, but about once a month I’ll buy a lottery ticket just for the heck of it. Surprisingly enough, I’ve had small wins on that! LOL Just enough to pay for my occasional ticket.

The pleasure comes in the dreaming of what I’d do if I ever won big. Chances aren’t very good, but, so long as my small winnings pay for the dreaming, it costs me nothing and is a bit of fun.

Oops! One correction. To help out a charity event of a co-worker, I did buy a raffle ticket once and ended up winning a tiffany style lamp, which goes great with my antique furnishings. I did it ’cause it was for a good cause and was actually shocked that I’d won! LOL

It’s those little, unexpected wins that make life interesting.