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Reddit user Final_Access_3215 recently asked: “Have you ever won a giveaway? If so, what did you win?” Proud, confused, and disappointed prize-winners alike flooded the replies with their surprising sweepstakes stories. Here’s what they revealed:
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1.
“My boyfriend won a costly camera and then used that camera to become a videographer. He left his 9-5 and became the founder of a video marketing business, where he hired me, and I quit my job to become his copywriter. The butterfly effect is wildly cool.”
—kleosailor
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2.
“I won a trip to New Zealand for two by reading six slides of text on an Instagram carousel. A New Zealand-based company did a (hidden) competition on IG by having a rambling story about ‘focus’ over six slides, but working in marketing myself, I wanted to at least acknowledge their social person’s effort by reading it all. On slide four, it mentioned going to their website, putting a specific item in your cart, and using a specific discount code to win a trip to NZ. The post had been up for about an hour, and I thought someone had definitely gotten it by then, but I was thinking of buying the product anyway, so I gave it a shot. About 20 minutes later, I got a text saying, ‘Winner winner, chicken dinner,’ and the rest is what you’d expect! It pays off to read everything, kids!”
—eleanorbruise
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3.
“I won tickets to a concert, airfare, and a hotel stay. Two weeks later, I was told I was the grand prize winner, which included tickets to the Super Bowl and a meet and greet with my favorite artist.”
—mastad0420
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4.
“My grandfather won the entire showcase on The Price is Right, lol. They still have the car he won and everything else.”
—shoeshinee
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5.
“I won a sweepstakes from a huge arcade back in the day called Gameworks. I didn’t even remember filling it out. Still, it was the best thing to ever happen to 12-year-old me. I got premier night tickets to the movie Mouse Hunt, an overnight hotel stay at Shutters in Santa Monica, CA, a limo ride and red carpet at the movie premiere, a day play free game pass for me and a friend, $500, and $500 in merch money at their store. It was awesome. I’m 40, and I still think about that high.”
—ChinMuscle
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6.
“I have been a lifelong fan of the amusement park Cedar Point. I had been a season pass holder every year for 20-some years. They held this contest in which they drew a winner every week for several weeks in a row. The winner was then allowed to choose three other people to also receive the prize. So I called everyone I thought I could trust and asked them if I could enter them into the contest. I explained that if their name was chosen, they would get the prize, and they would choose me as one of the three guests, and then they would get to choose the other two people. I had gotten 18 people to let me enter their names. Week after week, I entered all of these people into the contest. It was only the fifth week or so that my stepfather’s name was drawn. So my stepfather, mother, daughter, and I won, and we all have free season passes for the rest of our lives.”
—mikeybo2004
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7.
“I got blocked from a local radio station for one year because I kept winning. I won tickets to a Led Zeppelin cover band for myself and a friend, tickets to a local semi-pro hockey team where they put you and three friends on the bench between the two teams with buckets of beer, and tickets to walk a brand new TCP golf course during a tournament with a few pros, along with a pass to golf the same course for my dad and myself. That was in like four months, and after that, I wasn’t allowed to win.”
—Cloned-Fox
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8.
“My mom and I once listened to the radio when they were giving out Disneyland tickets. She went, ‘Watch this,’ and called the number. I laughed and went, ‘There’s no way they’re picking up,’ but lo and behold, they did! We got four free tickets to Disney. That was a fun trip. I was wearing a Doctor Who shirt that day, and a cast member at Indiana Jones pulled a sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. Made my day!”
—DocDynamite
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9.
“My friend won a free trip to Los Angeles and an exclusive invite to a black-tie NYE party at the Playboy Mansion when Hugh Hefner was alive. I was his plus-one. It was a wild experience! We got airfare, hotel, and the party invite.”
—thedealwithalex
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10.
“I won floor tickets to The Eras Tour through Capital One. It was pretty amazing. I entered on Twitter.”
—ShekhMaShierakiAnni
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11.
“I was one of 15 people that won the Nickelodeon orange pass weekend sweepstakes where we got to go to Hershey Park and stay the weekend at their hotel, go on a tour of the city, got to see the All Grown Up! special ‘R.V. Having Fun Yet?’ like a week or so early. It was a ton of fun.”
—jameso32
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12.
“Yes! I won a car! I had to pay the taxes! It was a lot!”
—Telrom_1
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13.
“Unbeknownst to me, my mother entered my brothers and me into a drawing to FOX Kids to win Goosebumps books. The grand prize was the winner’s first name being written in as the protagonist of a book (if I recall correctly). I didn’t win the grand prize. I was in one of the second or third-place winning groups. My prize was the entire mainline Goosebumps books that had been released up to that point. This was in the late ’90s. I was in the fifth grade.”
—SpartanOneZeroFour
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14.
“I won tickets to meet the cast of The Mummy, and Brendan Fraser made fun of how I spell my name by reenacting my mom giving birth to me and screaming the letters. Best day ever.”
—sordidcandles
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15.
“My high school sent out an alumni survey. I gave them a pretty scathing review. I won a $50 GrubHub gift card.”
—sarahmo48
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16.
“I won a tattoo raffle, which allowed me to get the chest piece I had dreamed of but would never have been able to afford otherwise. I got six hours for free, valued around $1,500 or so. I tipped, of course!”
—Pestoplasm
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17.
“I won a $40k bathroom renovation (all the fixtures, redwood paneling, slider to an outdoor area, etc.) plus $4k for extras. The only problem was that my wife and I lived in an apartment then and couldn’t use the prize. I arranged for the prize to be given to my in-laws.”
—AirlineOk3084
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18.
“My mom enters giveaways as a hobby. Some of the better prizes: an Xbox 1, a PlayStation 4, a desktop computer, a trip to Branson, and $5,000. The weirdest prize was a case of 48 cans of black olives. We also have so many branded stuffed animals and stress balls that they give as smaller prizes.”
—squeeky714
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19.
“I ‘won’ tickets to see Mitch Hedberg. Our local college radio station was doing a ticket giveaway; you just had to be the seventh caller. Well, I wasn’t the seventh caller, and I was bummed. I called the station back later and asked if I could just have tickets (they were doing a few giveaways). They said yes. Mitch was fantastic.”
—nineeighteen83
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20.
“When sports first started to come to Twitter, I won an all-expense paid trip to Barbados in the care of Kevin Weekes of the NHL. He is from Barbados and hosted a multi-week trivia contest in partnership with the Barbados Tourism Board. Long story short, I answered the right number of questions correctly first and spent a week in Barbados with airfare, hotel, and excursions all paid for. It was amazing.”
—NESpahtenJosh
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21.
“I have been weirdly lucky in my lifetime. I’ve won a five-day trip to a dude ranch in Montana, a trip to SuperBowl XL in Detroit, a ski weekend, two NASCAR races (free tickets), $10k from a supermarket sweepstakes, 10 gallons of maple syrup, a 55-inch TV, a cool Labatt’s beer tent, a turkey smoker, and a whole lot of smaller things. If someone wants to give something away, I take a chance, fill out a blank, and hope for the best.”
—Bennington_Booyah
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22.
“Between my wife and I, we’ve won concert tickets six times or so. The biggest win was tickets to a country music festival a few years ago. We saw many different artists. I’m not a huge country fan, but my wife is. However, we saw Nazareth perform there as well. That was the highlight for me. We’ve seen Def Leppard, Billy Idol, Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks, ZZ Top, and Lynard Skynard, all from tickets we’ve won.”
—emuwannabe
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23.
“I opened a bottle of Powerade, and it said I had won the ‘grand prize’ inside the bottle cap. I had to go to the website and enter a code. It was the early 2000s, and I thought I had hit it big, like a car or a trip somewhere. It was a screensaver of their logo.”
—Consistent_Profile47
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24.
“I won a ‘lifetime of free showers.’ Literally, it was 250 free showers, but it was good enough. That may sound silly to most people, but as a trucker, that was amazing as each shower at that particular chain can cost up to $18. So I’ll drive ‘clean’ for most, if not all, of the rest of my career.”
—WhatsThisButtonDo719
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25.
“I won a giant Easter egg yesterday. The local community center had a raffle. It’s huge — like 10kg. I’m gonna dress up my baby daughter and take photos of it with her, but as for eating it, don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate, but even I won’t be able to tackle that without a lot of help. And my husband isn’t much bothered by chocolate. So I guess my friends and neighbors are gonna love me.”
—chilari
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26.
“I won my Kindle in an author’s raffle, which has changed how I read A LOT. I read much more. It’s so convenient to take my Kindle with me instead of a book (or several books when I go on holiday).”
—SocksOfDobby
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27.
“I won a snap-on toolbox in a raffle. It retails for $8,600, and I spent $50 on tickets.”
—Broad_Whereas_9789
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28.
“I won a $500 gift card from Victoria’s Secret once. They had a promotion where they included a gift card with a random amount of money on it with every purchase. If I remember correctly, it could have been $5, $50, or $500. I actually got the $500 one. I bought a ton of the PINK branded sweats with it.”
—LuunchLady
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29.
“I won the first generation of iPod shuffle. It could only hold 120 songs.”
—SquilliamFancySon95
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30.
“I won a Dyson vacuum worth £650 in a charity raffle at work right before I moved out of my family home. 🥲 That was two years ago now, and it has been the most useful blessing ever!!”
—Boring-Jelly1989
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31.
And: “My mom won a year’s worth of Tide powder detergent. It showed up on a pallet in the driveway. The fine print said it accounted for a certain number of loads per week based on a family of four. It was just me, my mom, and my stepdad. My mom never used a full scoop, though, for a load. We had to move dozens of boxes with us to our new house. It lasted something like seven years.”
—KingWolfsburg
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Have you ever won a major prize from a contest or giveaway? Was it everything you dreamed it would be? Tell us your story in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
