Non-cash prizes you have won

[jollystomper]

Here is a (hopefully) "Fun Friday" thread .

As an incentive to participate in an alumni survey, my alma mater offered as a prize several custom designed Fender Stratocaster guitars. The survey topic was interesting enough that I completed it without thinking about the prize.

So now… I am staring at this brand new guitar, in a very nice case, including a strap and pics. Whopee, I was one of the winners! Naturally… I do not play the guitar. I am left-handed, and the guitar is for a right handed person. But that will not stop me from playing around with it. Maybe attempt to play it right handed . Worst case, eventually donate it to a friend or charity auction, or it becomes part of my estate .

It made me think of other non-cash prizes I have won over the years. One from over 30 years came to mind, that DW and I still chuckle about, was getting a call from a local Pizza Hut. They asked “Do you like pizza? Because you have just won free pizza for a year!” I thought it was a prank, though we had eaten there within the month and I had filled out something for a drawing. I went to the store prepared for the prank – instead, they congratulated me, took my picture, and gave me 52 coupons for free pizza. No restrictions on the size or type of pizza. We had 2 kids at the time, both under 5, and we actually struggled to use up all of those coupons. After a year we still had about 10 left, but the store was nice and said just use them whenever you can.

So, what memorable non-cash prizes have you ever won?

 

[USGrant1962]

A trip for two to Hawaii.

When we were engaged there was a Panasonic ad in the Sunday paper with a sweepstakes entry. I remember getting one or two more, filling them out and taking them to the local stereo store where they had a drop box. I told my fiancée (DW now) that we were going to win a trip to Hawaii, lol.

A couple of months later a certified letter shows up - I won and call this travel agent to book you trip. Airfare and a week in the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Fiancée also won a small TV at a some bridal event at a department store. That was a lucky year.

 

[JRon]

We won free dinner at a restaurant once a month for a year. We had a 1-1/2 year old at the time so it wasn’t the most convenient, but we couldn’t afford to go out much at the time so we still thought it was great. We were treated like royalty the first couple months, but by about month 6 they acted more like we were bothering them. We quit going by month 8. Still enjoyed the win though!

 

[EastWest Gal]

I won a bag of oranges at the annual picnic at the Chevron Richmond refinery where my dad worked when I was 11 (I had a choice between the oranges or a can of motor oil.) That same year at my dad's home town annual parade, picnic, and dance, my sister and I won a three-legged gunny sack race. I think we got $2 each. It was a cash prize, but since neither my sister nor I were athletic, it was a point of pride to both of us.

I'm jealous of USGrant's Hawaiian trip.

 

[Aerides]

A ride in the goodyear blimp:

I was still in the UK, about 12? I won an essay contest about a local church. The prize was to be awarded as a trip for two, the following Spring.

Turns out over the next few months we moved to the US. Fortunately, we landed near where the South Florida blimps are based, so we were able to transfer the trip and get a birds eye view of our new home. To this day, my sister and I will often point when we see one in the sky "I've been in one of them!" (We have only recently started to question our parents' sanity in letting their only two children go up in one of those together...)

 

[timbervest]

I was on Jeopardy many years ago when only the winner won money and the second and third place finishers won "valuable prizes". I came in second won bedroom furniture (which I ended up declining since I would have had to pay the taxes on it). Third place got Nintendo 64 (wish I had won that). Nothing like the megabucks that they win on the show today.

 

[Telly]

Some impressive wins here so far! Heh heh, I'm at the extreme other end...

The only thing I've ever won was a copy of Smokestack El Ropo's Bedside Reader book. Won at playing some sort of game at a get-acquainted gathering at a dorm complex at the Big U eons ago.
I ducked it just now, didn't expect any hits (no pun intended!)... quite the opposite! There are old copies for sale, etc. etc. I'm surprised anyone would have one from back then. Didn't know it was connected with The Rolling Stone.

https://www.answers.com/Q/Who_has_heard_of_Smokestack_el_Ropo's_bedside_reader
https://glorioustrash.blogspot.com/2018/08/smokestack-el-ropos-bedside-reader.html

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

This thread reminds me of my former congressman, F. James Sensenbrenner, heir to a tidy bundle from his grandfather, once the top executive at Kimberly-Clark. In addition to winning the parental lottery, Sensenbrenner has won several state lottery jackpots as well, one for $250,000.

I did win a nice two-piece pool cue once. Not for playing pool, but for playing pinball. A bar that colleagues and I frequented after hours had a raffle you could enter if you "rolled over" the score on the old, pre-digital table in the bar's back room. I had a knack for the game so I was in the pool-cue pool.

 

[sengsational]

A ride in the goodyear blimp:

I was still in the UK, about 12? I won an essay contest about a local church. The prize was to be awarded as a trip for two, the following Spring.

Turns out over the next few months we moved to the US. Fortunately, we landed near where the South Florida blimps are based, so we were able to transfer the trip and get a birds eye view of our new home. To this day, my sister and I will often point when we see one in the sky "I've been in one of them!" (We have only recently started to question our parents' sanity in letting their only two children go up in one of those together...)

You and I have that very, very rare experience in common. Probably rode on the same blimp. My dad bought us tickets, though, so didn't win the ride. Although I was around the same age as you at the time, I probably couldn't string two sentences together with any level of coherency, lol!

 

[Sojourner]

A ride in the goodyear blimp:

You and I have that very, very rare experience in common. Probably rode on the same blimp.

Wow, very cool! As a kid, I was fascinated with the Goodyear Blimp and would have been over the moon if I'd actually been able to take a ride in one.

 

[Sojourner]

The best thing I ever won, by far, was a pair of tickets to a practice round at The Masters. I also won a dinner-for-two voucher worth about $50 many years ago at a company Christmas party raffle.

 

[Beldar]

​

As a child back in the 60's I filled out some coupon in the back of a comic book. A few months later a big box showed up in the mail. I had won a GI Joe jeep with searchlight trailer. Imagine my surprise!

Long gone.

_B

 

[pacergal]

about age 10 I won a portable transistor radio at my folks Elks Club party.
Nothing since!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have won a few different prizes, but nothing exciting. The 10 speed bike I won at an A&P drawing was pretty awesome (I was 13 or 14 at the time) but I did fill out about 25,000 entry forms (or so it seemed!).

Speaking of guitars, I have a close family member who was the "randomly selected" recipient of a band guitar at a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert a couple of years ago. I think that is one of the coolest prizes someone could win.

It would be a very bad thing to win 52 free pizzas...because I would claim ALL OF THEM!

 

[scrabbler1]

Back around 1990, a NYC radio station had a "Name That Tune" contest between two callers who managed to get through to the station amid all the busy signals. I got through one morning and played against another caller. I lost the game (I forget what the winner's prize was) but I won a few music cassette tapes as a consolation prize. One I didn't like and gave it away. But the other was Elton John's 1989 "Sleeping with the Past" album which I kept in the car and played it often for many years until I got rid of the car in 2007. The new car didn't have a tape deck (it has a CD player instead), so I can't play my tapes in the car any more.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Back around 1990, a NYC radio station had a "Name That Tune" contest between two callers who managed to get through to the station amid all the busy signals. I got through one morning and played against another caller. I lost the game (I forget what the winner's prize was) but I won a few music cassette tapes as a consolation prize. One I didn't like and gave it away. But the other was Elton John's 1989 "Sleeping with the Past" album which I kept in the car and played it often for many years until I got rid of the car in 2007. The new car didn't have a tape deck (it has a CD player instead), so I can't play my tapes in the car any more.

Oh yes, I forgot that I won a dozen turkeys once. How? Radio station did a promo that involved bowling with frozen turkeys. Winner won...yep, a dozen turkeys. My Mom wasn't impressed with my bounty and we took them to a local church to give away.

Another prize I won involved the same radio station. On Friday mornings, they would let a small group of folks in to watch/participate on the morning show (in studio). It was first come, first serve so I was always there at 3 AM to make sure I got in. One morning they did some contest to see who could do the best impression of Johnny Carson and I won...a whopping $99. Ah, those were the days. I think I did the studio visit about 10 times as a teenager. It is kinda funny that one of the interns at the time (was answering phones) is one of the primary DJs for a couple of Sirius XM stations these days.

 

[kcowan]

Fiancee won 3-days at Miami Beach in The Atlantis Hotel at a raffle at the Canadian National Exhibition. But we had to get there on our own. We happened to be getting married in November and driving to Miami anyway.

Showed up, free parking and a nice oceanview room. For the promised event tickets and meals, we had to show up for the buffet breakfast. Yup hardsell for swampland in Florida. We got out at 10:45 with all our goodies and our wallets intact.

 

[skipro33]

I tend to donate to causes by buying raffle tickets.
To date what I can remember winning;
1. Several guns, the most recent a semi-auto shotgun from NRA dinners
2. Lots of fishing stuff from kayak fishing tournaments. Every tournament, and there are about one a month, I buy $100 worth of raffle tickets. The prizes are donated by vendors and sponsors so the ticket sales goes to a charity the tournament has named prior. Usually the local search and rescue or the fire department, but sometimes things like children diabetes. By lots, I mean thousands of dollars worth over the years. Many times I go up to get my photo taken with the prize (sent to the sponsor who donated it) and then turn it right back over to the next ticket drawn if I don't need or want the prize.
3. A radio controlled 4x4 truck at a campground raffle drawing.
4. 4 or 5 charter fishing trips.
5. Probably one of the coolest things was I won a drawing to play drums for Shania Twain at a concert I took my son to. Son was in a high school jazz band and the class was invited to attend the concert. I got to sit in on one song of my choice and right after as I was thanking the band, I mentioned my son played bass. They then called out to him, brought him up and the both of us got to do another number with him on bass and I on drums. Very cool band and Shania wasn't too shabby either. Ha!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I once won a clarinet from a Sam Goody...long before they closed up shop! The main reason it was memorable was that I was probably 11 or 12, and I filled out the contest entry because I was there looking at guitar strings or something. I sold it through the Pennysaver, and used the cash to buy more cartridges for my Atari 2600! It was awesome!!

 

[grasshopper]

I won concert tickets from a radio promotion in 1986. I only heard them annonce Bob Dylan as the proformer.

Found out later it was the Dead, Tom Petty, and Dylan at RFK in DC. Had skybox free beer and food, and a limo from home to DC.

Ms G won 4 nights at the Silverado resort country club in Napa Included dinner with the winemaker of Concannon winery.

A limo to the airport 200 miles one way, a whole bunch of spending money. Dinner at Mustards Grill a 20 year favorite, and a library tasting at Beaulieu winery.

 

[REWahoo]

So, what memorable non-cash prizes have you ever won?

I didn't win this in the traditional sense as it wasn't a contest of some sort that I entered. However, I was fortunate in being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of an offer of a free trip to the 98 Winter Olympics in Japan.

A major vendor for our company was an Olympic sponsor and offered all their larger customers a week for two at the Winter Olympics, all expenses paid. The spouse of the executive scheduled to take the trip became seriously ill a few days before departure. None of the other members of executive management could go on short notice. Since I worked directly with this vendor I was offered the opportunity.

This was a very memorable trip for DW and I: First class airfare, tickets to several events (ski jumping was my favorite), a great hotel overlooking the finish line for Alpine skiing events, and the opportunity to meet a number of US Olympic athletes.

Unfortunately my most vivid memory was coming down with the flu the day before flying home and how absolutely miserable I was for the next 10 days. I've never been sicker.

 

[txtig]

I haven’t won a contest or a raffle, but I have been extremely lucky in that I’ve been contacted by several foreign benefactors wanting to share untold millions of dollars with me. While I haven’t actually taken advantage of any of these offers yet, if I am lucky enough to get another offer, I’ll be ready to pounce on it!

 

[jollystomper]

Oh yes, I forgot that I won a dozen turkeys once. How? Radio station did a promo that involved bowling with frozen turkeys. Winner won...yep, a dozen turkeys. My Mom wasn't impressed with my bounty and we took them to a local church to give away.

This brought back memories of one of my favorite TV shows, WKRP in Cincinnati, when they had their disastrous turkey giveaway ("As God is my witness... I thought turkeys could fly."). Every time I see that episode I'm (the ending is on YouTube, I'm too lazy find and post a link right now).

 

[Lewis Clark]

I have two memorable ones.

Early in our marriage my wife won a lot of stuff on radio call-in contests. The most memorable win was two tickets to an Ann Murray concert. It became memorable because some of our friends paid big bucks to buy tickets in the nosebleed section. We were just so-so fans and were sitting up close about row 5 or so, in the center with our free tickets.

More recently, in 2018 the Green Bay Packers were having 100 days of giveaways to celebrate their 100th season as a team. The big prize was two tickets to a home game plus some cash (~$500 if I recall correctly) to cover expenses. Sure enough, my wife won a pair of tickets to a game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay! But we could not choose the game we attended, as she had expected. We won tickets to the game on the first Sunday in December that year.

We made a mini-vacation out of the trip and were in the Upper Midwest for 7 days. It snowed on us Florida residents every day of the trip. Temperatures at Lambeau during the game were in the low 30s (got lucky - could have been a lot colder) and it was snowing the entire game. This was the game that got their coach fired later that day.

 

[Car-Guy]

I've won (or was awarded) lot's of non cash prizes from various casinos over the years... Of course you might say I paid for them by gambling so much Mostly "crap or junk" but I have been given or won things like an iphone, a laptop PC, a 60" curved TV, lots of gift cards up to 1k in value, etc... But probably the most valuable and/or coolest thing was a one year lease of a new Mercedes...That was too much of a hassle to deal with IMO so I actually turned it down and took the cash equivalent....