Have you ever won anything?

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I bought some stuff online before Christmas, from some French cosmetics place, and vaguely remember something about my name being entered into a prize draw they were running. They've just contacted me to say I have won a quite beautiful gold and amethyst designer ring. I'm very excited, as I hardly ever win things.

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

What was the last thing you won? And what were the circumstances of that?

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

I won a nice watch from a jewlery store drawing once. it was unexpected.

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

I won a holiday for two to Morocco for filling in a "how good/crap was your holiday rep/resort/flight" questionnaire on the way back from Cyprus earlier that same year. That was kind of cool because I didn't believe for a second anyone ever actually won those.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

When I was a child, I attended a charity function with my family that somehow involved a relative who was a major NRA player. Some raffle tickets were bought for me, and at the end of the night I won a huge shotgun. My parents asked me if I wanted to keep it and I said I didn't think so (I had always played 'guns' as a kid, but the idea of hunting horrified me), so they sold it for me through an ad in the paper and bought me a pimped-out Casio keyboard with the money!

― Ben Boyerrr, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

I won a pub quiz last night - £63 - does that count?

― Tom D., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

Cor, yes!

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:04 (nineteen years ago)

Oh that happens all the time, that's the fifth jackpot I've won this year

― Tom D., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/winner.png

― onimo, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

My mum wins raffles ALL THE TIME, she's always winning stuff

― Tom D., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:08 (nineteen years ago)

I went through a stage of entering a million online competitions. I won a spoon from Muller and a free yoghurt and a signed England Rugby League shirt. (not from the same competition, I might add.) This was after 6 months and must be hundreds of competitions.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

pleasant plains and i won two trays of meat at the penshurst rsl on xmas eve last year. WINNERS.

― sunny successor, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

The heart of an adoring public.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

I don't count pub quizzes because I win them all the time </modest>, but this one time the jackpot (open to all, not just the winners, you got separate prizes for winning) had been rolling over forever and was over £300. None of my usual pub quiz mates could be arsed coming out with me to the quiz, so me and one other pal went ourselves and won the quiz (£50 bar tab) and the jackpot and then phoned the rest of them up and went hahahahaha to them then got very drunk indeed. For weeks.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

You're about as modest as me I see

― Tom D., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

I want these pub quizzes which involve $$.

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

Shop around!

― Tom D., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

I've never heard of them in the US. I think there might be some sort of law against things like that?

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

I have also won quite a few quizzes.

I can only think of 3 things that I have won apart from that :

1) A John Otway single at a Radio One 'Rock Goes To College' gig. The competition was for the best anagram of Otway and Barrett. I won with 'Barrett and Otway'. (1980 IIRC)

2) Thames Valley League cricket medal (1990).

3) The Henry Treece memorial prize for English Expression at school (1977).

― Dr.C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:22 (nineteen years ago)

Pub quizzes are a brilliant way of supplementing crappy income. When I was a student I only went to pubs that did quizzes. You win it, you get enough money to come back the next week, drink all night, and win it again, and so on. Get a few pubs that do quizzes on different nights = a week of free booze.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

I won £8 on Euromillions not so long ago.

Read it and weep, turkeys.

― PJ Miller, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett!!

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

I used to win tickets to the local arthouse cinema all the time in my late teens. Perhaps I was the only person who ever rang in to win them... but I got to see a lot of great films that way.

― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

I've just remembered that I won first prize in the Stroud Poetry Competition when I was about 12.

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

I wonder what Wild Willy is doing now?

― Dr.C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

Still Playing

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

Sgs won an ipod nano in a library survey - she already had a pod so sold it (to a colleague of mine), though I think she felt a bit sad to have to do so.

This is slightly cheating I think, but when I play poker I use a rakeback provider, which essentially means I pay less commission to the site itself. This provider sets up tournaments for its members, free to enter, and I have won $315 playing them (I reckon this counts because I had zero risk or outlay).

On XFM in its very first guise, back in 1993, I won a Kristin Hersh single and the Volume 4 compilation CD.

― Mark C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

OMG, Ed Tudor-Pole too! Swords of a Thousand Men!!!

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

I won a copy of Southside by Texas on cassette from our local paper whenever that was that that came out - about 1988, maybe?

Our school won the Scottish heats of "Schools Challenge" which was basically University Challenge for school kids and went on to represent Scotland in the final, which involved going to Wales for three days with the geekiest kids from school and my chemistry teacher. Lovely.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

£8 on Euromillions

At first I thought you meant you won 8 million Euros!

oh yeah when I was a teenager I used to win concert tickets all the time, having nothing better to do than dial radio staion phone numbers on repeat. Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J & Public Enemy, Digital Underground with Tupac. All free! Hurrah!

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

I won eighty quid on a four horse accumulator last week, if that counts.

Not including pub quizzes and bets I think the last time I won anything was the junior section of the Rough Tor Run (a ten mile cross-country) when I was about fifteen. I got quite a nice trophy for that.

― Matt, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

i won a goldilocks frisbee in a coloring comp when i was five. it was yellow.

― sunny successor, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

I think I actually won a Beautiful Baby contest in my local paper, I was placed certainly, I'll have to confirm this with my mother

― Tom D., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

I once bought one of those books filled with Olde Pictures Of Yore Towne, and opened it to find an old black-and-white photo of my very first boyfriend when he was a six month old baby, having just won that year's Beautiful Baby Contest! He was mortified.

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

while in middle school I won the "back-to-school week" of a certain game show that rhymes with "leopard tee"

somehow I managed to keep this fact a secret throughout my entire high school career

― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

50 quid when I was a student for writing the best essay in the department that year. It was the first essay I'd ever written at university, so god knows how I did it.

A book, in a Fortean Times competition, when I was a teenager.

― Forest Pines, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

I won an ET doll from a magazine for writing a description of ET's home world, when I was 11. Then, when I was 14 I won letter of the week in <I>Number 1</I> magazine by rewriting Kubla Khan to be about Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

I always seem to come second in pub quizzes, mainly because I don't know anything about sports.

― accentmonkey, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

Sport, and the London Underground. They always get me.

― C J, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

Oh yeah, I also won a copy of the Abbey Road EP off the Spiritualized website. For, err, basically, being a mentalist Sp* fan.

― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

by rewriting Kubla Khan to be about Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

haha, that's awesome!

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

100m, 120m hurdles, high jump, long jump, 200m. Donegal County Boys U-13, 1993.

an all-ireland donegal-dublin final ticket from same year, signed by packie bonner and niall quinn in a raffle.

nothing since.

― darraghmac, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

I won a 3-cd thing that had "The best songs of 2006" (that's what they called it anyway) by calling a radio station. Also got tickets to see Arcade Fire 2 years back by calling the same radio station.
Lots of 2nd-place medals from table tennis competitions. I think I came 2nd like 4years in a row and the fifth I won, which came as a surprise to everybody :D

― Jibe, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

Discussion of things what you have won, here:

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/lollards-podcast/2007/02/freaky-trigger-and-the-lollards-of-pop-week-6

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

i know a guy that played raquetball every day from the age of five with another lad from the same road, two doors up. as a team they were european champions and number one and two on the continent respectively.

but it always really pissed him off that he was only the second best player on the street.

― darraghmac, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

haha, poor guy :D

― Jibe, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

I won a prize for my academic performance recently! It's the only thing I've ever won.

― jel --, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

Congratulations jel!

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

Me and Mrs V won 28 grand on the telly that one time. This story is boring but everytime I say it, it makes me grin.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks! I plan to become the wild man of librarianship.

― jel --, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

I won a blender once.

― Michael White, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

Oh yeah! I forgot! I've won the Euro lottery loads and loads of time!

― jel --, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

I remember you being on that! I think £28k is just about ample reward for making small talk with Julian Clary.

xpost to Noodle Vague

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

Julian Clary is an absolutely charming man, honestly. Reward was for wearing bright yellow shirt.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and having the worst anecdote ever.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

I won a free bottle of champagne for answering a riddle correctly on Valentine's day.

― Andi Mags, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

I've never heard of them in the US. I think there might be some sort of law against things like that?

Nope. Some of the Chicago ILX crew did a pub quiz last week and won $20 for having the high score in the fourth round. There was a $200 payout for the overall winners.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

do you have to pay money to enter? If so I think that might prohibit such a thing from bars in TX. Regardless I've never seen or heard of one here. Wish there were. :(

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

We paid $5 to enter. I'm not sure how it works in most places, but we had such a good time, I did some research and found that there are at least a half dozen bars in Chicago that have similar events.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I think that would qualify it as "gambling" here which is pretty tightly controlled in places that serve alcohol. I must come to chicago and sweep all ur bar quizzes!

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:48 (nineteen years ago)

I think the places get around it by making the fee a donation to charity and giving a fraction of the donation as a prize.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

I won £50 on Premium Bonds when I was about 13.

And pub quizzes, obv. A few years back when I still lived in Reading I used to go to the quiz at the Eastgate where the winning team set the quiz the following week and it was us and a rival team alternating for a while. Haven't been to one in London for months in though.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I think that would qualify it as "gambling" here which is pretty tightly controlled in places that serve alcohol. I must come to chicago and sweep all ur bar quizzes!

But how is it gambling? Surely the point of gambling is that there is nothing but luck involved. (I am not arguing with you, you understand, but with the daft law.) Here in Ireland you have to have a licence to hold a raffle, but you can have a quiz no problem.

― accentmonkey, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

a wooden nickel and a free soda. won the speed skating race at Skate Odyssey, columbus, mississippi. '84 or so.

― andrew m., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

oh, and about 10 years ago, i "won" a spot in the top 10 best demos in seattle's defunkt mag the rocket's annual "demo derby."

― andrew m., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I don't know but anything involving money & chance are pretty tightly controlled here. The lottery only was voted in when I was 18 and it still has plenty of opposition.

― Ms Misery, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

Actual last thing won: About ten bucks in Vegas playing slots, which I promptly blew by playing more slots.

Last ~~decent~~ memorable thing I won: Sennheiser headphones from Blender magazine six years ago. Used 'em till the cord got fucked up.

― C. Grisso/McCain, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

I've won a few cd's from 6music, best ones being the Bob Marley box I won on Phil Jupitus and a Tindersticks cd from Gideon Coe.

Ages ago I won a 'designer' limited edition Miles Davis watch which was pretty cool until it packed in about 2 months later, he could blow that horn but as a horologist he was sorely lacking.

Best thing I won was from Fopp, a framed photo, approx 20" by 15" of Christopher Walken and Spike Jonze on the shoot for the video for Fatboy Slim's Weapon of choice signed by Jonze.

― Billy Dods, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

i won a gigantic (about 4' high) easter basket when i was in 4th grade by coming closest to correctly guessing the number of jelly beans in the enormous jar contained therein. the secret was that my father wrote out a formula involving volume and stuff like that, into which i plugged in a few numbers after some close study of the jar.

― lauren, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

oh yeah, a copy of 'beat it' for dancing at an under 7's disco in 1987 (gutted cos second place was a big bag of sweets) and academic award for a truly awful college course last year.

i just won a cushy government job in an interview, does this count?

― darraghmac, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

I won a Good Writing Guide book in a Never Mind the Full Stops related online comp.

― DavidM, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 00:41 (nineteen years ago)

I've won Mr Fat Bastard dozens of times.

I also won Vauxhall and I on Johnnie Walker's doley bastard programme on the old BBC Five Live.

― PJ Miller, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

i just won a cushy government job in an interview, does this count?

3 years and counting....

― quiz show flat-track bully (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 10:40 (sixteen years ago)

only 37 more til retirement.....

― quiz show flat-track bully (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 10:40 (sixteen years ago)

We shd poll whether Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday is the best day to walk straight out of the door and into the nearest pub.

― STFU Alumni (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 10:42 (sixteen years ago)

play football monday evenings, tuesday night it's my turn to cook and wednesday nights its business time

― quiz show flat-track bully (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 10:50 (sixteen years ago)

I meant at 10.30 a.m.

― STFU Alumni (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 10:53 (sixteen years ago)

pretty sure my point stands, unless you play football, cook and ...entertain better after 8 hours in the pub?

― quiz show flat-track bully (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 10:57 (sixteen years ago)

I won a copy of What's Left? by Nick Cohen on The Times' comment blog, and ruined Daniel Finkelstein's point about anchoring into the bargain.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 2 March 2010 23:00 (sixteen years ago)

Just last night I won a Magic Hat bottle opener from a #9 bottlecap (the beer is just okay though)

― Dan I., Wednesday, 3 March 2010 01:46 (sixteen years ago)

i won an travel mug/cup thing in a drawing from an organization (my chances were approximately 1 in 25)
i won $100 in one of those games on a cap'n crunch box when i was 12

― harbl, Wednesday, 3 March 2010 01:49 (sixteen years ago)

I won a $20 Jamba Juice card 5 years ago, was pretty much the losingest person in my family. But last year I won an all-expenses paid trip to Tribeca Film Festival that was totally awesome...so I think that resets me back to not winning for the rest of my life. I'm okay with that.

― VegemiteGrrrl, Wednesday, 3 March 2010 03:52 (sixteen years ago)

i won $2200 audio speakers in a work raffle

― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 3 March 2010 03:55 (sixteen years ago)

When I was 11, I was stuck in Pure Wood Furniture, a store that sold unpainted/unfinished furniture, where my parents decided to spend an afternoon shopping. I stood and filled out entry forms in my parents' names to win an oak bookshelf the whole time they shopped. My parents won the bookshelf, and promised I could have it someday since I "won" it. They still have it, though. It's fairly old-fashioned looking, but I would not mind owning it rather than the K-Mart particle board bookshelf I have now. That's the thing I won, and how I won it. Thanks for reading.

― How to Make an American Quit (Abbott), Wednesday, 3 March 2010 03:56 (sixteen years ago)

A golf bag and a cooler, door prizes at a charity golf tournament I was in.

A hardcover copy of Mona Lisa Overdrive.

A very nice weekend for 2 in New Orleans -- well-timed, my wife and I were poor newlyweds at the time.

That's all the pure-luck stuff I can think of. As far as winning through competition, a few bowling trophies when I was young and some poker tournaments more recently.

― Hervé Grillechaise (WmC), Wednesday, 3 March 2010 04:19 (sixteen years ago)

The Live Journal community "Marc Jacobs" had a contest for who could make the best icon for the community, and I won, so I got a three month payed account free... for making a 100x100 pixel picture of Marc... only thing I've ever won.

― Jon (cremepourlemains), Wednesday, 3 March 2010 06:18 (sixteen years ago)

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