Winners vs Losers

viktory

I have noticed from a lot of signatures, that a lot of the prizes won as little ones. Kinda makes you wonder who does win the big ones! I enter all comps posted on MSE, with the exception of tickets for events I know I could not attend and anything that I really could use/give away.

josie301

I don't think it about winners & losers.

The winners post is about thanking the OP of the comp - if you got it off here and inspiring others to enter comps.

Comping is not for thise wanting to make money - in fact i is a totally ineffiecient use of my time, but I enjoy it and use it to unwind. If you try to make money out of it you will soon become disheartened.

I enter probably about 500 a week easily, so it takes up quite a bit of time. But any prizes I get are welcome surprises, something that I wouldn't normally have gone out to buy or something that will save me money.

I don't really think you can look into it scientifically, there is of course the law of averages etc, but then sometimes just a positive attitude works wonders.

Enough babbling from me, I've comps to enter!! lol

Edit to add - More companies offer 10 dvd's rather than 1 dvd player, so there are more smaller prizes to be won, which is why there are more small wins noted.

mrs_metal

I started comping middle of July and do about 20-30 comps a day. I haven't won anything yet, then again I haven't been doing it very long. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for ANY win, let alone a big win

winnie2007uk

hi all, i just say keep going and dont think about it ,then when it does come (and it will eventuly) enjoy.ive been compin a few months and already won so much and i thought i was the most unluckyest person in the world .(never even won a fiver at the bingo)but i must say a big thank you to all those that post the comps ,because if it were not for them ,i would never have been to pontins ,or my kids would not be enjoying a great barbeque thank you sooooooooooooooo much for sharing what you didnt have to:beer: :T :T

Alikay

I've been entering about 40 a day for about 4 months, and as you can see, I've had a few wins. For me, its not just about the prizes...although I do want to win! I enjoy entering the comps, and the buzz of knowing I COULD win. I used to do more crossword/quiz type puzzles, just for fun so the comping has replaced that really...probably its not as "worthy" a hobby as it doesn't increase my vocabulary/knowledge etc, but hey...i was only doing Daily Mail and Take-a-Break type things anyway, not broadsheet cryptic ones!

Shineyhappy

I have been comping for about 2 months now and I have won two small prizes. I dont think that comping is a reliable way of earning income but its something for me to do when its quiet at work. I probably enter about 20-30 comps per work day on average and it would be nice to win a tv or a dvd player or even better a holiday or a car but I think its more realistic just to expect a few little treats when I get home. Even if I just won a few things like CDs/DVDs to give as Christmas presents then that is great!

bonhovis

It's all about the luck of the draw. I only started this month and I've already won around £900 worth of prizes! I do imagine that I'll go through a competition 'dry patch', but I try to make sure that I enter as many competitions as I can, albeit ones with prizes that interest me. I find it a lot of fun, and as others have said before, the people on MSE forums are a wonderful and extremely friendly bunch

It does come down to the fact that "if you don't enter, you won't win."
The more you enter, the greater your chance.

hobbes

I comped for 2 months before I won anything and then I won a few things in the space of about 3 weeks. However, I have since gone another month without winning, so there is no real pattern to it.

Obviously, the more comps you enter the more chance of winning, but as someone else said above, a lot of the wins on here are for small things. The big prizes will be much harder to win. Having said that, someone here recently won a £10,000 kitchen makeover so you never know!

I tend not to enter for smaller prizes unless it's something I really like, and I don't usually enter comps for tickets/holidays as I probably wouldn't be able to go. I guess that restricts my chances of winning more prizes but I don't want to enter loads of comps just for the sake of entering.

I find I can enter about 30-40 a day during quiet spells at work, so it's not really costing me anything to do it and it's exciting waiting for the postie every day to see if I've won anything!

lisa78

To be honest i don't really look at it as winners and loosers. I enjoy entering competitions, its not costing me any money and if i win great. I've had a few wins since starting doing a lot of competitions and easily enter a few hundred competitions a week.

If i didn't win anything then seeing the threads on here of people who have won would give me hope that it'll be my turn eventually.

If you don't enter any comptetitions then you haven't got a chance of winning.

If i tried to keep tally and work out my percentages of wins v not winning then it would take the fun out of it for me

purple_spider

winners vs. losers is an interesting question, but I think it would be hard to track as there are many variables - like how well marketed/publicised a comp is - or if its on mse/loquax and what degree of talent you need to have to win. Personally I think the more talent that is needed & if the comp isnt very well publicised then you have more chance of winning - as it reduces the varible in the amount of people who know about the comp or have the specialised skills to enter it (not easy choice ones like Answer:

That said i've won things just from spontaneous chance, and easy question comps too. I think its the same with most things in life, the more you try the more likely you are too win. Its about opening your mind to the possibility...sorry that came out sounding very new age :rotfl: still if you think more about winning you're more likely to spot comps in different places rather than skipping through magazines etc and missing them.

i love entering competitions, but i think it also depends on what you're aiming for, the demand for it and how many comps there are for that particular item. A good way to test your comp theory might be to aim for something small like a new release of a certain title of Book/CD/DVD and see how many times you have entered comps to win it - as they always seem to have a blanket press of comps when new media is reviewed, so its more likely there will be a higher ratio of comps. Or you could try the raffle/tombola at your local summer fete! If you start small and see how you get on, it won't be long until like the rest of us you'll soon be addicted :cheesy:

I always wonder how they pick the winners, like do they go oooh thats a nice/funny/cool email address, or if it is totally random, or if they pick a number and take the 10th entrant from the page as the winner - like the old radio comps winner is on line number....10 !