Returning to comping after 6/7 years!

oldskoolcomper

Hi guys,

I used to use this forum a lot between 2007 and 2009 and entered literally everything for a long period of time in that period, won shed loads of great stuff, then just quit comping.

Not sure why I did quit to be honest, probably just burnt out, in hindsight I got a bit addicted to winning so would enter stuff that I didn't even want.... probably exhausted the proportion of my energy dedicated to comping too quickly.

Comping took me to Istanbul and Barcelona, won me about £1500 in cash, and shed loads of other stuff.

Knocking my old account on the head as the username is partially my real name, probably unwise. I used to post a lot of comps so got loads of 'thanks' on that account (I'll start sharing again soon, good for the karma I find!).

Going to be doing things a bit differently this time and just entering things that I really want, basically holidays, experiences, and cash (which can be used to purchase the former!).

Not going to enter stuff that I don't want or can't think of a person who is close to me who would really appreciate the specific prize, for some reason entering stuff that I wouldn't value feels a little bit wrong for me now but didn't in the past :huh: Guess its just a new found empathy with other humans in general, the knowledge that there may be somebody who desperately needs whatever it is that I would just shove in a cupboard (anybody else feel that way?).

I feel a bit stupid for stopping completely, just thinking about the stuff I could have won over the past 6 years if I'd continued makes me feel a bit annoyed with myself tbh!

The game looks a bit more competitive now to be honest! Also, need to get used to the new forum software as my tenure here predates that somewhat!

Any other people here who primarily comp for travel / holidays? My signature is just going to list the places that comping has taken me from the time I started, hopefully get to add to that list in time
.
:beer::beer:

Marg2k8

Welcome back.

I first started comping around 30 plus years ago, but I have taken breaks of sometimes years at a time as real life got in the way. I have been back to comping again since 2008, with breaks of a few months now and again.

I think that you will find it a lot harder to win big prizes such as holidays and cash nowadays, but I wish you lots of luck.

brownhandbag

Welcome back!

solfleur

Welcome back, I myself like yourself and many others have just got back into comping again, apart from every day life making my time comping shorter, I put time into my other pastimes (watercolour & acrylic painting, sketching and embroidery) wishing you lots of luck.

Misslayed

Welcome back! I'm a returner too, although I've been back for over a year now. I was comping in the olden days (over 30 years ago) when every comp was either 'answer on a postcard' or complete the form and post it. Wins came in a LWE (long white envelope). I don't think the prizes were as honest then, I won a couple of technology things which were frankly out of date - a CD player was a model no longer available to buy. The biggest prize I won then was tickets to a Michael Jackson concert, which didn't seem so big back then! I've won much bigger prizes this time round. It's still fun, you just need to enter more to win, but then autofil, click and enter makes it so easy.

oldskoolcomper

Marg2k8 wrote: »

I think that you will find it a lot harder to win big prizes such as holidays and cash nowadays, but I wish you lots of luck.

That was always hard in fairness (although used to get people win huge cash prizes with ITV when they did free online entry, I wasn't one of those unfortunately!).

Law of averages, have to be in it to win it, etc.

I am including flight only prizes, UK holidays, and stuff like West End show tickets with hotel accommodation in my 'travel' agenda. Now I just need lady luck on my side!

Cheers.

eyeballpaul

oldskoolcomper wrote: »

That was always hard in fairness (although used to get people win huge cash prizes with ITV when they did free online entry, I wasn't one of those unfortunately!).


ITV free online entries - those were the days.
I won lots of small prizes £250/£500/£1000 but not the really big ones.
Also CH5 Brainteaser was money for old rope. Won £500, £1,000 and £10,000 all in one month. Then they stopped all the programmes. I was gutted!
Today the holiday competitions are tougher to win, but not impossible, Good luck

eleanorre

You will find it is much harder to win because so many people have started to enter. The magazines like "Take A Break " used to offer a car every week but not now the prizes are not really worth so much in these publications these days. There are far fewer competitions where skill is required but they are worth doing . I have been a comper for umteen years and used to get at least one prize a week but not any longer . I remember my husband saying "Oh not another dishwasher " . These days are gone and you have to spend longer trying to win . As I always say " you kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince "

Best of luck to you

megamitts

I quit in 2008 after comping for about 6 years. I don't really know why. Probably due to the amount of crappy phonecalls I had. I started again in 2014 and don't enter my telephone number at all - my view is that if there's an email then they can reply to that.

Wins have been ok. On a par really with what I used to win, so stopping putting my phone number down hasn't altered anything. There are far more casual compers entering these days via the easy stuff like twitter retweets (which I have yet to win on) and facebook entries.

So far this month it's been a dry one. These things happen, they did back then and they do now. It's good to see Di Coke and a few of the old gang are still at it and winning.

Keep up and welcome back.

PS. You'll probably really, really hate Rafflecopter and Gleam when you first start using them.

oldskoolcomper

eleanorre wrote: »

You will find it is much harder to win because so many people have started to enter. The magazines like "Take A Break " used to offer a car every week but not now the prizes are not really worth so much in these publications these days. There are far fewer competitions where skill is required but they are worth doing . I have been a comper for umteen years and used to get at least one prize a week but not any longer . I remember my husband saying "Oh not another dishwasher " . These days are gone and you have to spend longer trying to win . As I always say " you kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince "

Best of luck to you

Some of my best wins used to be the email entry competitions rather than the roboform ones (love how browsers like Chrome use autofill as standard now, I can remember having to specifically download and install a plugin for that!),

I never used to skip email comps because they seemed to get fewer entries and I think that still looks to be the case. I guess people think "I'll do that one later" and then forget.

Also when I was comping I had numerous wins from Real People Magazine, cheques would just turn up in the post, but it looks like they now offer less prizes whilst some other mags now offer more prizes.... things change I guess, presumably Real People have seen their market share shrink or something.

oldskoolcomper

Well I'm off the mark with my first win.

A pair of stall tickets for a West End show.

Only, I then googled for reviews and it looks like it is utterly terrible so I emailed back, made an excuse and told them to pick somebody else (you never know, they may pick somebody who actually really wants to see that show).

Goes down as a £100 prize allegedly, but I think the competition was a way of dishing out loads of tickets so the theater isn't empty after loads of 1 out of 5 reviews (the show only has a one month run).

Still, its a win, I'll take it.