MetaChat - So, like, I just won a hideous vase.

I will post pictures tonight when I get home. Although you will be sorry I did. Theoretically, however, this thing is valuable, so look for it soon on an ebay near you!

posted by mygothlaundry 02 March | 14:38

I won a red denim coat from Lucky magazine during the first few months when they did their contests in the "First 10 People to E-mail Win" way (I stayed up until midnight, and entered everything). Now, it's random. Boo.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 02 March | 14:39

I won a ski trip to Winter Park, Colorado. The trip was sponsored by Travelocity. I wasn't thinking when I entered. When I was informed that I was a winner, I had to decline and forfit the prize. I had a four-month old baby at the time, and I couldn't leave him, nor did I think bringing him along was a good idea.

I won a gray fleece scarf from some tech company I can't remember the name of.

I won a jar of Loreal skin cream.

A 25 dollar Mastercard giftcard sponsored by Sarah Lee.

posted by LoriFLA 02 March | 14:44

Oh, and tonight I'm going to win the lottery. Mega Millions, $267 million dollars. Yup, yup I am.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 02 March | 14:47

I once won free concert tickets because I had the saddest life. Seriously, that was the contest. Something like, "This artists sings really sad songs. Describe your sorrowful life. Best entry wins two tickets."

The best part was that my life was so sorrowful at the time, that I had no one to bring with me to the concert.

I did go, though. It was rather fun.

posted by occhiblu 02 March | 14:57

I won a tree on Arbor day in middle school, along with free movie tickets, for answering a trivia question.

I recently won a free copy of Quicken 2005.

posted by muddgirl 02 March | 14:59

I have won quite a few things from radio stations in the past when I actually listened to the radio. I won a TiVo way back when from that contest that was linked to on MeFi but I really think almost everybody that entered that contest won (I never used the thing, just stuck it on eBay and got 200+ bucks out of it). I've won several little things here and there.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 02 March | 15:05

When I was ten, I won a bitchin' Fright Zone* playset in a Mattel "Design your own Masters of the Universe character" contest. (I was a runner-up. The winner got to be president of the company for a day, or some shit.)

*The Fright Zone was the foul fortress of Hordak, dread leader of the Evil Horde. And it was awesome:

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Atom Eyes 02 March | 15:12

Red Sox tickets and a Mary Kay consultation.

posted by initapplette 02 March | 15:14

I won a TiVo, too! Turned around and sold it on ebay, as well, for the same money. That was cool.

I also won "Ad of the Week" for the world's best personal ad. Got special placement on the personals page, and theater tickets. It was a crappy play, but we had fun. Ultimately, I won an even better prize, since I'm now married to one of the ad's respondents.

And my team won the trivia contest at our local dive bar just this past Tuesday, a $25 bar gift certificate. We've won a few of those in the past.

posted by mrmoonpie 02 March | 15:17

Oh, and when I was 10 or so, I went to the movies with my young uncle, who worked at the theater. Before the show, they had a drawing for a giant, garbage-can-bag-sized popcorn and a six pack of Coke. I won! Only recently did I suspect that the contest might have been rigged. Just this past January, I asked my uncle about it, and he confirmed my suspicions. I think that makes it an even better memory, actually.

posted by mrmoonpie 02 March | 15:21

I won a coconut cake in the 6th grade cakewalk. I asked to trade it for chocolate and they said no.

I won a 1950s edition of Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution at a political fundraiser.

I won a "get started with your Mary Kay career" box o' makeup at a Mary Kay event I was dragged to, and was forcibly made into a Mary Kay trainee against my protestations. (I eventually escaped their pink-taloned clutches, but it took some doing.)

Best prize ever: I won tickets off the radio to see David Bowie here in L.A. a couple of years ago -- amazing show!

posted by scody 02 March | 15:28

I won four tickets to an opera based on the David Lynch movie Lost Highway, but I couldn't use them because I was visiting Joe Famous in the hospital.

I also won two free electric toothbrushes, Crest or Colgate brand. I have yet to redeem the coupon.

I won a pair of gardening gloves, which were too small, ao I gave them to my friend, who has a small garden on the roof of his East Village pad.

I won three tickets to the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden, which I gave to an old coworker who took her nephews and then, later, took me out to dinner. We had a nice time.

But that Mega Millions $267 mill is gonna be mine, I feel it. I only play the lottery when the jackpot is over $250,000,000. Something about a quarter billion shuts off the little voice that says, "It's a bad bet! It's a poor tax! It's a scam!"

Sweet Yahweh, my personal friend and saviour, gimme the G's, baby; Give me the motherfucking G's.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 March | 15:30

Boy, I will fight you!

And yea, I only pay when the jackpot is ~ $200 MM or more. You're absolutely right about the little voice.

But this time, you should listen to yours. Since I'm going to win.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 02 March | 15:32

It's probably only about an eighth of a billion after taxes. Feh.

I won a small tree from some PTA ladies, they were jerks about it.

posted by Divine_Wino 02 March | 15:34

Like an indoor tree, a ficus or something?

posted by Hugh Janus 02 March | 15:40

Some kind of Chinese Willow or something, it's in my backyard, slightly crooked, it's never really grown and it won't die, we call it the Spite Tree.

posted by Divine_Wino 02 March | 15:41

I won a plastic rooster filled with gumdrops at a library summer reading event when I was ten, by guessing the number of gumdrops it contained. It contained 249 gumdrops. I was thrilled.

I won a baseball cap with a sandbagger sloop embroidered on it at a work Christmas party.

I won $400 on a scratch-off ticket at a time when I really needed it. The lady in the convenience store who cashed it in said that she had had people in there who won $10,000 who were not as excited as I was about my four bills.

And last week I won a $10 gift card to a downtown business.

posted by Miko 02 March | 15:42

The Spite Tree cracks me up.
i saw a woman in a house coat and curlers toddling into the convenience store to win $100,000.

posted by ethylene 02 March | 15:45

I won a $1200 telescope as part of a sales initiative at a store where I once worked for being the top telescope salesperson in the district (I can sell a motherfucking telescope like nobody's bee-ass). My boss kept asking to borrow it every time there was clear weather forecast for the weekend, and I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd sold it for $850 to a neighbor.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 March | 16:02

Hugh, I have heard that telescope sales are really high in NYC because people use them to look in other people's windows. How true is that?

posted by Miko 02 March | 16:04

A trip to the circus for an essay I wrote in fourth grade.

A Barnes & Noble gift certificate from my old job (bingo game). I used it to by smut, and that pleased me on several levels.

The husband gets excited about ebay and says "Honey I won!" When he has a bid accepted. I'm like, "no, you bought something." Opposites attract and all that.

posted by rainbaby 02 March | 16:17

I won $50.50 playing bingo at my dad's company picnic when I was eight. The next year, you had to be 14 to play bingo. That was a lot of money for an eight-year-old, but I have no idea what I did with it.

I won a $50 savings bond in a drawing at an art fair in Denver when I was nine. I still have the savings bond.

I won a nightlight with liquid and glitter that moved around when it's plugged in for a tacky ornament contest at work. I used neon construction paper, beer caps, rhinestone and glitter to fashon a very tacky star. I gave it to my mom because moms have love handmade things. My nightlight then exploded, leaving glitter and glass all over my bathroom counter.

posted by youngergirl44 02 March | 16:20

I wouldn't know, as this was in Maryland. Though the guy who bought it was taking it with him to Colorado, where I imagine the night sky is spectacular.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 March | 16:32

Oops, shoulda previewed. Meant that as an answer to Miko.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 March | 16:33

I won the Internet, once. And all I got was this stupid rash.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 02 March | 16:44

I won a tshirt with a large cartoon penis shimmying into a condom from a school sex fest, he was saying "You Must Be Putting Me On!"

I never play the lottery, only beautiful, addictive, scratch-to-win cards! I like to hand them out at dinner parties, it's terrible fun and someone almost always wins something!

And I believe that I will something, anything, from blingo. Sometimes I just enter the search "why do you hate me blingo?", still...nothing...

posted by Mrs.Pants 02 March | 17:27

oh and rainbaby i say "I Won!" after ebaying too, but that's because it can get nasty in there sometimes and you have to aggressively purchase something. I have also outbid someone out of sheer spite.

i am a sad sad sack.

posted by Mrs.Pants 02 March | 17:28

Tickets to Judy Collins, with Arlo Guthrie opening, at the Hollywood Bowl. Crappy seats.

posted by danf 02 March | 18:32

I won shitloads of money during the MeCha Meetup in Vegas.

posted by essexjan 02 March | 19:21

I won a Columbia bicycle at the circus when I was about 5 or so. I learned how to ride a two-wheeler with that bike.

posted by tommasz 02 March | 19:28

I want to win an invitation to a Mrs.Pants dinner party.

They should make beautiful scratch and SNIFF games.

I can't say I'm one for winning stuff. I did win baseball tickets at work once. A guy I don't like at work had the gall to say if I didn't have anyone to go with that he'd go. I told him I'd rather let the tickets go unused than go with him. hahahah

Some day I'll win some lovely girl's heart. Now THAT's something worth winning. KA-CHING...

posted by eekacat 02 March | 19:43

I won $150.00 twice in Atlantic City. At the time, you'd have thought it was over $1000.00.

I won a work-related contest for increased sales in the seafood department. It was for $300.00, in store gift cards, of course.

TPS and Hugh Janus, when I win the Mega Millions, I will take you out to dinner. And all the other NYC bunnies, too.

posted by redvixen 02 March | 20:40

I guessed the weight of a pumpkin one halloween and got it free. Twenty years later my father died on that very spot. (The small family farm had been sold and a nursing home built. I say hello to my dad whenever I drive past.)

I also won a giant blue teddy bear at Playland shooting water into a clown's mouth and popping the balloon first. I rule.

(pink, hugh... if you do win, you'll remember your ol' friend pips, right? : )

((shit, hugh, we could've gone Saturday...))

posted by Pips 02 March | 20:48

Pips! I won a giant stuffed dog for my daughter on that game at Kings Dominion. I watched several rounds of other folks playing, and saw that one water gun seemed to have more power than the others. I waited until that one was available, then won on my first try. 10 years later, my daughter still sleeps with the threadbare, stained, lumpy doggie.

posted by mrmoonpie 02 March | 22:43

- a Max Headroom tshirt from a local radio station (first thing I ever won)

- approx. $400 from various sources: mostly horse racing and 50/50 draws (where half the money goes to the person holding the winning ticket and the other half goes to the group holding the draw)

- a signed book from some guy who wrote about art glass

- a few bucks, maybe $50 total, from various gov't lotteries

posted by deborah 03 March | 19:21

02 March 2007