Have you ever won anything without putting any money down?

[tmm99]

I just won an iPad. This is my biggest win so far (and I didn't put any money down to win it.). I won an iPod nano years ago too also with no money down (company Xmas ruffle).

You?


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[devans0]

I won a beautiful fully chromed BMX trick bicycle a number of years ago from a local grocery store. It was built to take extreme abuse. It was any child's dream bike.

I am well past the age of doing tricks on a bike. I didn't have a use for it. I took the bike to a local bike shop where it was professionally assembled, then donated it to a local elementary school as a PTA raffle fundraiser. I received a very nice thank-you letter from the boy who won it. As did the grocery store that originally gave away the bike, as did the bike shop that assembled the bike. Very worth it!

[pb4uski]

I've won two big prizes that come to mind.

The first was a lifetime pass to a local ski area in a drawing that I won when I was a freshman in college. I used it all my college years and perhaps a year or two after that and then the ski area wen bankrupt and as an unsecured creditor I got nothing.

The second was a nice mountain bike for closest to the pin in a golf tournament. I was at a industry conference that included an afternoon of golf. I was actually having a pretty good round when we got to the closest to the pin par 3 hole. The hole had a long gully that you had to carry from the tee and the pin that day was in the near right corner of the green - a bit of a sucker pin given how close it was to the gully and the trouble to the right of the pin. I decided that I didn't want to ruin my good round by going for the sucker pin so I lined up for the middle of the green. I ended up pushing the shot (to the right) and ended up about 6' from the pin.

[KB]

I won $500 of merchandise at a furniture store once and a few years later I won $15 of meat every week for a year at the grocery store where I regularly shopped. That grocery store had wonderful sales and over the year I ended up filling my freezer while feeding my family too.

[Sue J]

Not me, but in 2009 DH and our older son went to lunch at Applebees. A radio station was doing a promo event and both DH and our son won cards for a free entree a month for a year. So we ate a lot of Applebees that year.

I won a "Pure Prairie League" album in college for answering a trivia question on the radio.

tmm99, enjoy your iPad!

[mpeirce]

Back in college I used to listen to our college radio station (WRPI) late at night when I was studying. Various businesses donated tickets and such for them to give away.

My favorite "contest" was when they'd read the ingredients of a product backwards. They'd often start out the same and slowly come into view:

artificial flavors...
vanillin...
emulsifier...
PGPR...
soy lecithin...
milk fat...
lactose...
milk chocolate...

HERSHEY BAR!

I won a bunch of movie tickets and restaurant gift certificates :-)

[gozer]

Work had a monthly drawing for people who car pooled to work. Since my wife and I both worked at the same place, we counted as a car pool. We won 4 $25 gift cards over a two year period.

[Meadbh]

I participated in a charity golf tournament where everyone got a prize. Mine was a golf bag.

[daylatedollarshort]

I won 30% off all my purchases for a day at a department store scratch off game. I bought thousands of dollars of furniture and appliances already on sale or clearance.

It was a national chain and after that one of the store clerks told me they changed the future scratch off game rules because of me!

[LoneAspen]

I can only think of two things I've won in my life.

I won a Schwinn bike in elementary school for drawing the best poster for a Halloween event at school.

In high school, I called in to a radio show and guessed some question correctly, and won an album of the soundtrack to the movie Tootsie. Gee, just what I always wanted.

When I was growing up and those Publisher's Clearinghouse and other magazine sweepstakes things came in the mail, I'd always hunt down all the little stickers (amidst the ones for magazines, which I never ordered), stick them in the correct spots, and mail that sucker in hoping to be the big winner. Never happened, LOL.

[calmloki]

A local hardware store had a drawing and I was notified that I had won a barbeque - went in thinking it would be a joke gift (aluminum pie tin with a couple briquettes and a coat-hanger grill). Turned out to be a very nice big propane Weber that we still use.

Also manged to win the birth lottery big time.

[daylatedollarshort]

I used to win lots of stuff at our kids' school raffles but I had to pay for those tickets. Often the total value of the prizes was $2 to $3 for every $1 of raffle tickets sold. In those years I would spend $200 or so on raffle tickets and win $600 in prizes back, and the $200 went to a good cause. We won an MP3 player, a wine rack, pies, ice cream, restaurant meals, etc. - all sorts of stuff donated by local businesses.

[tmm99]

Until I was in my 40's, the only thing I won was tiny packets of Kleenex while my friend was winning big prizes like a color TV (that was an expensive prize in the early 70's), a scooter, a fridge, etc. I think I have a better luck now than when I was younger, but still not at the level my friend was then.

[old woman]

I won two tickets to a baseball game. The contest was to win other baseball stuff but they had a run off drawing for 5 more winners from the losers. The contest was only for volunteers at a charity who had over 100 hours for the year or something like that so not many in it and lots of winners.

[FUEGO]

I won a nice boogey board when I was a kid. Stuck my name in a hat and they called me a week or two later. From JC Penney at the mall IIRC. I still have the boogey board.

[chilkoot]

Back when they were still new technology I won a DVD player from a local radio station. Also was put on the air answering trivia questions.

[MBAustin]

I used to fill out contest forms from TVGuide and other magazines when I was in high school. I won an am/fm radio once. And then about 10 years later my name was drawn for a door prize at a safety meeting and I won an am/fm/shortwave radio. That was a long time ago...can't think of anything more recent.

[Rosie]

A few years ago I won a week-long deluxe bike tour for two, thru the Northern California wine country with Trek Travel.

It was a promotion with MapMyRide and Versus (now NBC Sports Network) during the Tour de France. All I had to do was upload a ride from my gps cycling computer to MapMyRide.com at least one day during the TdF. Each day a ride was uploaded, it was an entry into a daily drawing for cycling swag (jerseys, water bottles, gift certificates and such), and all the entries were also entered into a random drawing for the two big prizes.

The grand prize was a Trek Travel tour in France the following year, including VIP-access viewing of the final TdF stage in Paris.

I got "only" second prize, but I much preferred it, in large part because airfare wasn't included with either prize, and we lived only ~ 2 hrs drive from the start of the wine country tour. That, and since it was a deluxe tour, we stayed at some of the swanky Napa & Sonoma Valley hotels that I'd only read about. The riding was pretty fabulous too.

[Walt34]

About 1985 I won a free Coke at Jerry's Sub Shop.

[Ally]

My husband won an Ipad Air for me at a work conference right before he retired in April. He wasn't familiar with one and tried to trade it for tshirts instead. When he called me that night, he said "Oh yeah. I won you an Ipad, Ipod or something." Since I had been silently wishing for an Ipad for years, but couldn't spend the money on myself, I said "IPAD or IPOD" He got the box and spelled it to me. I asked him if there was really one in the box and he said yes, it's heavy. I told him please please please bring it home safely! I was so happy to get one and I love it!