I always wonder if anyone ever really wins those prizes - from places like McDonalds or Nabisco- I have never - and don't know of anyone that has-
Best prize I have won was from a raffle - 6 tickets to a Reds game and a bunch of Reds Baseball items

What was your best prize - and how did you win it?

I enter contests/sweeps all the time. I figure someones got to win it might as well be me. Silly Girl !LOL !

About 7-8 years ago I entered my sister's name at an evenflo contest and she won an exersaucer. Does that count?

I remember a few years back when they had daily drawings for the anniversary Lava Lamps, I entered everyday. My dh entered a couple of times and HE WON!!!! Anyhow that's the best prize we've ever won.

Let's see, the list of things I've won is pretty short . We hit 5 of 6 numbers in the lottery once. We won about $2,000. I won a DVD player at a church raffle --two weeks after we bought a dvd player (we only have 1 TV). I won a Longaberger Horizon of Hope basket with liner, protector and lid (approx. $80 value). I've won little things like movie tickets and even an Oreo yo-yo.

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Cecilia

"We must love them both--those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

I won $500 in an old Alta Vista contest. From Lowes, I won a clock/radio/cdplayer kitchen mounted style.

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We're off to never never land

I won a piece of the Berlin Wall (supposedly it is) about 15 years ago in a contest I entered.

DH won a digital camera from work

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I dropped an entry blank into a bucket at the local cable company. Well it was an entry to see the final concert of the Judd's. Funny thing is that I almost didn't win but the original winner was a family member of the cable company.

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Laura
Please visit my blog
http://mylifeinlaurasworld.blogspot.com/

I have won a few contest. i won a few trips to las vegas through coke. and i have won some fossil watches and a trip to roy rogers house. the latest was one of those massive gaterage coolers from the daily contest about a year ago.

We won a ski trip, all expenses paid, but our food. This was about 17 years ago, we did a 5K run and hung around for the prizes and won the grand prize. We had a great time.

Cruise--drawing at our favorite chinese restaurant
$250 Jcpenny Shopping Spree-drawing at Jcpenny
$100- Scratch off

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Angels may not come when you call them, but they'll always be there when you need them.

I'd have to say the best prize I ever won was from a local jewelers, they had a contest on the radio. The contest was you had to find out 'where in the world the CEO of the jewelry company was' searching for new stones. They gave a new clue each day for 10 days and at the end of the 10th day, you had to submit your answer (country and city). If you got the correct answer, your name was put into a hat and then the winner was drawn. I was actually on the phone when the DJ said my name that I had won! I screamed to whomever I was talking to that I had won a prize! I won a GORGEOUS tanzanite and diamond ring! It is so pretty, it's white gold, the tanzanite must be at least 3-4 carats and the diamonds I'm guessing are about 1 carat.

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Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

I have never won anything. Just this weekend I got to see someone win an all expence paid trip to the super bowl. I was at work so I couldn't enter. We live near San Deigo so the Chargers are HUGE around here. It will be cool for the winner when the Chargers go to (and WIN) the Super Bowl this year.

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TLJ ~ Where opinions are encouraged, not deleted

You laugh at me because I am different,
I laugh at you because you are all the same.

Your mind is like a parachute, it only works when it is open.

I won $500.00 on a radio call in contest several years ago.

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10.00 on a lottery ticket. Can you say LOSER?????????? Ha Ha

How funny! I won an Excersaucer from Evenflo about 6 years ago too! Too bad my kids were too big for it. I ended up giving it away at a Baby Shower - it was the best present (especially for FREE)!!

I also won $97 from a radio call-in once, 2 tickets to the ice-capades, $18 Lottery ticket, plant from a raffle ticket, a gift-basket loaded with Cat items (don't have a cat tho - so this was a gift too). That's about all I can think of right now.

My 2 biggest wins were last year a Senseo coffee maker and a $250 gift certificate to Spa Finders. I'm waiting on getting this any day. Anyone want to buy it? I'm selling it to add money to our Disney fund

I won a year's supply of M&M's once in one of those wrapper contests.....they sent me 365 coupons for free regular sized bags of M&M's...as if that's gonna last me an entire year......

GEESH!

I didnt win this but I got to go.....my son in law won a trip to vegas for four....evrything was paid
including their gambling money....we had a wonderful time!
I won a radio contest ten years ago and won a T'giving dinner from a local grocery store.
Most money I ever won was $70 on a scratch off...I'm in the hole again on those things!

Now I have a friend who wins ALL the time....she won $2638.00 on a penny slot machine. She
was playing with five dollars and half way thru her 5 bucks she won the big one and then she won
again another $250.00.....Another example: she went to a thrift store on a Friday and saw a rattan sofa for $100.00
she told them she be back on Monday to pay for it and pick it up....On Monday everything was
marked 50% off so she got it for $50!!!!....Go figure.....

I am a sweeper and average about one prize a week. My biggest was a $1000 Visa card. Other good prizes from the past year or so:
$400 grocery store gift card (my choice of store)
Playstation
DVD Player
Patio bistro set
The North Face jacket (retail $175)
Many gift certificates, numerous tshirts and hats, dvds etc

Still holding out for a car and a trip!

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Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!

I won a American Express card for $100 from clicking thru one of the points programs when I first got my computer.
Funny thing is they thanked me for " visiting" their site, and I only visited it for points!LOL


A few years ago DH won trip to Nassau from his company , It was all paid ,a plane trip to Miami and the cruise. It was great.

What is a sweeper?

This past summer I won 2500 dollars at the local racino..I was playing a nickel machine and was down to my last 1.25! That was cool. Then right after I won another 50 bucks.
I used to win all the time from WIN.COM -200 dollars one time, 100 dollars a few other times,
I won a farberware rotisserie from some contest. Which is beautiful, expensive, and I never use it! lol
I want to win a few million on the lottery so I can pay off my house

my 11 yr old ds bought himself a 3 dollar raffle ticket when he was at the elks club with my parents, and actually won the stainless steel 500 dollar dufrane grill! We already had one so he gave it to poppy!

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Kristie
mom to Tyler (11/94) & Joycie (3/99)
www.thegrandskofour.shutterfly.com

I'm a sweeper, too - enter a TON of contests. Yes, there is some luck involved, but if you enter a lot the odds are good that you will win something.

I win little stuff all the time and big stuff every now and then. My biggest win for 2006 was a Mini Cooper that I absolutely love driving

The best prize that I have won was a trip for 2 to London for a week that included air and hotel.
My mom won a trip to Amsterdam for 4 for a week, hotel, air and $1000.
(She took my husband, our daughter and myself.)

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John 14:1
GO GATORS!!
GO BEARS!!
Check out my pictures!! Just click below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gotjenks/

I won the grand prize at a bridal fair I went to in MD. The ppersons ticket that was pulled first wasn't there and then they pulled mine, my MIL at the time started screaming! It took care of pictures, tuxes, flower perservation, lingerie, limo, some other stuff too. Pretty good deal since we were poor, poor.

Thats awesome Valerie! I have been watching HGTV and would love to win their dream home, but no way we could afford the taxes on it!

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" Even though life can be a very long, hard, stressful and never-ending journey, never lose hope in what you want the most."

ooooh! I would LOVE to have that HGTV home!

I won a personal CD player (store drawing) , couple spiderman action figures, a book, a few other little things.

When I was little there was a contest to win a giant pumpkin, had to guess the weight. I was guessing weights and used everyones name. Ended up winning it under my brothers name. Don't remember the weight, but I do remember my parents having to drive the truck an hour round trip to go pick it up from the store. Also remember crawling inside it to clean it out and making a big mess in the kitchen.

I win quite a bit from internet sweeps. My biggest wins in the last couple of years have been: $100 worth of Rembrandt toothpaste products, a weather alert radio, a Gateway laptop computer, a $50 Red Lobster GC, (2) tickets to see Hairspray: The Musical from a radio call in contest (I didn't claim this prize because I wasn't interested in it.), and a Sony digital camcorder.

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Don't dream it. Be it.

About 2 months ago, I won 2 tickets anywhere Southwest flies. It was on a local tv station. About 15 years ago, I won a TV and VHS player from People's (now CVS). My dh won a pair of headphones about 25 years ago by making a print of his ear. My ds won a CD player when he was 5 (22 years ago)going through a door in a store (they were counting the people and he was the 300th person) I also won a lawnmower on a radio station by being the 10th caller. I usually win little things like door prizes at different events or bingo.

Toss up between:

Wurlitzer CD player jukebox that lights up and bubbles- won it from an essay that was later played as a Casey Kasem Long Distance Dedication through Hi-Liter essay contest


and


Last year won a trip for two to NY City to see the MTV Woody awards. First time DH was ever in NY and first time he had a plane ride. Won that through local radio station. I was driving to work when they announced the winner- ME- and DH and DD were at home listening. I had to pull over and when DH called me, we were both screaming. LOL it was an awesome trip for us.

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Not all those that wander are lost.

We probably enterted the contest from the same post LOL ! Thanks to the OP that posted it.

My sister was so surprised ! Her son loved it, wore it out !

I'm in on that HGTV sweeps too, maybe this time I'll be a winner ! LOL !

I peaked at age 8 when I won two tickets to an animated Peanuts movie from the local tv weathercaster. I recognized my little pink post card that I had sent in when he pulled it, and screamed like a little girl for 5 minutes.

Once I won a cake shaped and decorated like a turkey in a raffle. This must have been 20 years ago... Gobble, gobble, gobble...

When I was pregnant with one of our kids, I won $1000.00 from Chips Ahoy.

I was actually annoyed until I figured out what was going on. I'd been craving chocolate chip cookies. I bought some, opened the sleeve took a bite, tasted odd. Looked them over and low and behold no chocolate chips!!!! I was like, don't do that to a pregnant lady!! Looked through the rest of the sleeve, no chips!! I was fuming. I was examining the packaging to find a number to call and complain when I noticed...the front of the package was announcing a contest with a $1000.00 prize for the pack of cookies with no chips!

I was okay after that! Haven't won anything else, ever.

The only things I have won are: A turkey in a grocerfy store drawing and a T-shirt from a radio station for knowing the names of Donald Ducks nieces (even though he doesn't have nieces)

I also won 2 tickets to anywhere Southwest flies in a drawing on our local news. They expired a year later and we never used them.

I won a trip to the Superbowl on the radio in 1994 when it was in Atlanta. I was 6 months pregnant, so we took the trip and enjoyed it all but by game time I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions and DH was worried about the hike up to the nosebleed section where our seats were, so we sold them to a scalper for $2200. We then went back to the hotel, watched the game on the big screen in the bar and came home and bought the crib, matching twin size bed, dresser and chest of drawers (which she still uses).

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

We entered hoping to win to get tickets to go to our son's wedding in TX. We found a great deal on tickets with another airline on Sat. Monday I won the tickets. We decided to use the tickets to go to New Orleans and from there we are going on a cruise. We have it all set up for April.

A local Design company ran a promotion with/through/using Ikea where you had to write a creative Declaration of Independance thingy about home design and furniture. I didn't get the grand prize but I did win one of the second place prizes of a $500 GC to IKEA. I can't wait to use it - we're finishing our basement and its going to come in handy.

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Meddle ye not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crispy, and taste good with Ketchup!

When I was little(8-10 yrs old) Kool-Aid had a contest with a map. You had to see 4 commercials over the course of a couple weeks. Each commercial gave you a clue that you had to mark on this map. After getting the clues, you connected the dots and found out where "someone" was hiding. Then you mailed it in for a chance to win from correct entries received. I won a $100 Toys R Us gift certificate. It was great, my mom took me and I got to pick out so many toys.

Other things I have won thanks to couponing boards:
3 gatorade coolers(won twice the first year)
Albertson/Propel MP3 Player
7 Chick Fil A Nugget trays(won for me, dh, sister, mom, me year 2, mom year 2, sister year 2)

I also win door prizes fairly often.

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“A two-year old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it.”
Jerry Seinfield

$25 Visa gift cards from Mycoupons! I never win anything ,lol and was so thrilled to win them at my favorite place to be.
The only other thing I can remember winning was a $25 Walmart giftcard from Netwinner but thats not as great as a $25 Visa gift card.

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I used to work for the airlines. At christmas parties I have won:
2 tickets on Swiss Air
2 tickets on Delta airlines
and a gallon of sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce! (love this sauce)

Won a Thomas Kinkaid print from a radio station valued at $500! Also won tickets to a Family life marriage conference with a hotel stay! $150 at Sterling Optical. And we win little stuff from this station all the time CD's , concert tickets, zoo tickets, books, DQ ice cream treats, coffee at Gloria Jeans, 2 times we won dinners out at Texas roadhouse. I guess that isn't little stuff!

I used to do sales for a Art company. I have won:
A trip to a dude ranch in Arizona. This was an awsome trip!
A cruise on Majesty cruise lines
A trip to Disney
A trip to a christmas town in Indiana for a bed and breakfast
2 diamond neclaces
and a few oil paintings

Boy, why did I ever quit to be a stay at home mom?

I've won a few things; although nothing really too big. When I was about 18 I won a $100 g.c. to a jewelry store. My mom had been looking at rings, so she just bought the g.c. from me (and I really needed that $100!). I have also won CD's, DVD's, and tickets to local events. DH won two tickets and dinner to Busch Gardens, but we already had season passes, so we just took my parents along one night. I won a large Yankee Candle once-that was nice. I am still waiting to win the lotto though! I did sweeps for a while, but really had no luck, so I quit. Maybe I should start again-sounds like others have been pretty lucky

I won tickets on the Radio once for Disney on Ice when it came to town.

DH won tickets to a Monster Truck show
needless to say he took our kiddo instead of me that night !


We don't win BIG BIG Stuff, but we win at least one thing each year.
Halloween is my favorite time....
I LOVE winning those costume or pumpkin decorating contests!!
won 100.00 one year for a pumpkin. 50.00 for office decor contest another.
This past Oct we won 40 bucks for that pumpkin...

X

A sweeper is someone who enters sweepstakes on a regular basis.

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Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!

I don't know if you all remember the Buy, Bid, Win site a few years back? My family and I won hoards of stuff on that website. It was insane! We had toasters, blenders, TV's, coffee grinders. childrens books etc etc etc delivered almost daily for a few months after they started fulfilling wins. Dang that was a good time for freebies and bargains!

I entered DH's name into a contest online and he ended up winning it. It was for a brand new set of Tommy Armour golf clubs valued between $600 and $700. DH didn't care for that particular set of clubs, so he ended up selling them to our local Edwin Watts for a $500 store credit.

My biggest win was a $1,000 package of toys from Toys R Us and Amazon.com. It was great fun receiving the cartons and figuring out which neices and nephews were going to get which items for birthdays and holidays. Well, that is before dh claimed several items for himself! LOL

I along with Tessa67 am a sweeper. I just retired after 30 years in a maufacturing facility and for the last 10 years would spend 2 of my 3 daily breaks addressing envelopes and reading the fine print on those darn entry blanks. Presently I win something about every other week. My big win was a VW New Beetle in 2000 from Old Milwaukee beer and then in 2003 I won a trip for 2 to NYC to the Grammys from 7UP/Dr Pepper. Other wins have been, lots of tickets to big shows in Toledo OH, a years supply of Coca-cola, lots of clothing and electronics. I am very fussy about the sweepstakes I enter and then I am very aggressive. I would love to correspond with someone that also likes to Sweep.

I won The Diane von Furstenberg DVF Signature Heart Collection Suitcase Grand Prize valued at $500 from Medelia Monitor. I won little things from internets sweeps.

I was at a casino playing video poker and hit a jackpot for $1400. My dh and I went to eat and I remember saying what are the odds I would win another tonight. Well we sat back down to gamble some more and I won an $1100 jackpot that same night. Great evening and lots of fun.

3 years ago, I got married in Las Vegas. The night before my wedding, my had stopped at a slot machine and was going to play out $20 before going to the bathroom. She hit the jackpot for $6000. That was a great trip along with getting married!

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Shelley
blue5203@aol.com

~Mom to Andy-11/3/05 and Ryan-7/31/08~

I won a Crayola prize package when my name was chosen for the State Color contest
I named the crayon for Arkansas Hog Wild Red I believe it was!

We got 5 of 6 in the lottery one time.

We won a Harley Davidson prize package as a second prize in the Texas Lottery.

DH won a DVD player at a grocery store grand opening.

I won a gift basket of home scent stuff (candles, oils, incense, etc) when we attended The Taste of Home cooking show in October.

I think that's it...

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Another sweeper here! I started entering contests online about five years ago. I don't enter everyday, but I enter frequently. The key is you just have to keep at it...don't give up! I've won alot of things...dvd player, perfume, CD's, $100 Publix gift cards, toys, etc...My biggest wins though were a living room set from North Carolina Furniture...and an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas to meet Celine Dion. It came right around my 40th birthday so what great timing. It was through Chrysler...and no, I didn't buy anything. I just entered one time online. They had a limo pick us up, airfare was paid for, put us up at Caesar's, and we got to meet Celine backstage and see her show. She was a wonderful woman...very down to earth and sweet. I'm living proof that you only have to enter one time to win! ~Lisa

I sweep now and then, i'm not a big sweeper as i really don't enjoy it as much as my mother does. My mother enters roughly 600+ sweeps on a daily basis and maybe 100 weekly sweeps and 50 monthly sweeps. I have won 500 at cars.com several years ago and she has as well. I won few things here and there, but nothing worth mentioning. My mother on the other hand has won

2 playstation 2's
2 gamecubes
xbox with xbox ready tv
xbox 360
cruise on carnvial cruise lines

those are some of her bigger wins unfortantely she has a hard time winning the real big sweeps, but does pretty well averaging 4 wins a month

She wins small stuff as well. The key to sweeping is patience and persistance.

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SAHM of Bailey 12, Tyler 9 , Emily Ann 5, and Ryan Matthew 4 yrs old.

My biggest win by far was the 61" NEC Plasma TV. My husband did not believe me when I called him at work. Came with the stand also.

I also won $1000 in the Swingline tax break sweepstakes.

And a few little things.

hashbug