Competition Entering

[Sundae]

Or "comping" as those of us in the know call it.

I am a baby comper. I dabbled in it when I was at work. Now it is approaching the same hours as I would devote to a second job.

I won today for the first time. Well, I say won. I received a promotional book of recipes for Alaskan fish recipes, but it did have a limited amount of copies available. The downside it, it has a forward by Sarah Palin. Ah well, compers can't be choosers.

I have a very inflated sense of my own luck at present. Especially as someone who doesn't really believe in it. I expect this to be the first of many prizes, and some of them to actually be worth something.

I am especially confident of the three competitions I entered which required some creative inout. Don't hold your breath, but I will let you know if those that run these things have any sense (ie I get a prize)...

Anyone else regularly enter competitions? Anyone won anything grand?

[LabRat]

Do you mean "sweepstakes" as they are known here in the US? Where you sign up for free stuff, and end up with your name on 50 zillion cold call and junk mailing lists?

When Red and I were visiting Chicago's Navy Pier one spring many years ago, I dropped my name in a box. A couple months later, I found out I had won 2 free roundtrip airline tickets to Los Angeles California. Unfortunately, at that point I was 3 or 4 months pregnant, and we couldn't afford the trip (it was a surprise pregnancy, so were weren't really financially ready). I called to see if they would extend their expiration date so we could use the trip as a getaway post partum, but it was a no go. We couldn't give the tickets away either, since they were non-transferable.

[Sundae]

It might count as a sweepstake. We tend to have a different meaning for that though (paid entry and a small and finite group of winners).

On the website I'm a member of (UK only, sorry) you enter your details and pay no money. There are laws here they have to work around - as I'm sure there must be in the States - re lotteries and gaming and free entry etc.

Even where you have to make a purchase you can always send your details in free in order to enter. So for example a scratchcard which you get when you when you buy a McDonalds - you send them your details and an independent adjudicator scratches one for you. Funny when you think about it, and the odds are so low I doubt many people do it, but it conforms to the letter of the law.

I've entered free comps for everything from a year's supply of fabric softener to a DVD to a spa day. You have to be in it to win it!

Oh, FTR, I always flag the no contact box, unless I am interested in the product. I do only enter competitions I want to win, but there's a difference between wanting free fabric conditioner for a year and wanting emails from them once a week!