Comping for 9 years... 0 wins!

BizHighflyer · 9 July 2019 at 10:18AM

Firstly, I wanted to say a massive thank you to everybody here who puts in the time to share entry information, competitions, do all of the puzzles to share answers etc. It's quite a community and it's always heartwarming to see.

I thought it was probably about time I said hello; this is my ninth year of doing competitions and sadly, my ninth year of not winning anything!

I have to admit I don't enter everything which I am well aware reduces my chances dramatically, but I do all of the ITV competitions via text, Take a Breaks, holiday entries, Heart/Absolute/Radio X etc, regular magazines like Bella/That's Life, along with the one-off entries for prizes. I'm also doing the daily Hits + Magic radio competitions at the moment...!

It would be a dream to win something. Oddly, despite a terrible drought of almost a decade, I still find the time to enter competitions - it's quite therapeutic? A win would certainly help my family's finances but for now, it's an oddly satisfying way to unwind! Am I alone in this? Ha!

Perhaps eventually I'll strike it lucky? Right?
I do wonder if I'm doing something wrong sometimes!

mirko · 9 July 2019 at 10:21AM

Those are all quite popular competitions. The only luck I've ever had is from small twitter comps or facebook ones.

They don't quite have the same level of prize as the ITV ones though!

BizHighflyer · 9 July 2019 at 10:24AM

mirko wrote: »

Those are all quite popular competitions. The only luck I've ever had is from small twitter comps or facebook ones.

They don't quite have the same level of prize as the ITV ones though!

It's probably more of a time-thing for me, rather than the "greed" of wanting a big win. Perhaps I need to invest some more time here

Do you find these competitions via this board, or scout them yourself?

Bobble5366 · 9 July 2019 at 12:17PM

It's all a game of odds, your big win could very well come at any moment ! Good luck.

cagsd · 9 July 2019 at 1:31PM

I know you know this already, and I don't mean to be blunt, but if the comps you mentioned are the only ones you're entering, you could be in for a very long wait for a win.
Each of them receives thousands of entries, some in the hundreds of thousands, so your chances of being a winner is pretty slim. I've been doing all the magazine puzzles for about 7 years now and only won with any of them once; I've never won with Heart, Capital etc.
Yes, people do win the big cash prizes, but you only have to look at I Won! board to see that the vast majority of people's prizes are things like tickets, pet supplies, toys, gin etc etc.
I'm not saying you should be entering for anything and everything - I certainly don't enter for anything I'm not sure I could want or use - but cast your net a little wider and enter for (eg) DVDs you'd like, makeup or toiletries if appropriate, food and drink prizes, local tickets, etc etc. You may find you get a few little wins.... although then again, you may not. My supply of small prizes seems to have completely dried up.
However it does seem like you have the right attitude - it's just a bit of fun, and if you win anything it's a bonus. Keep that up and hopefully something will come your way before too long!

mjm3346 · 9 July 2019 at 3:03PM

ITV competitions represent poor value for the "stake" vs returns/odds and that is just for the value of a 2nd class stamp, for a text entry it is absurdly poor value as they could easily be getting 1,500,000 or more entries a week.

From earlier this year

In their accounts from a few years ago they were quoting an actual number of 40,000,000 PAID competition entries a year, since then I haven't noticed them quote a number anymore but all the accounts since then have included something like this which is from the accounts just published

Elsewhere in Direct to Consumer our
competitions have performed well across
the schedule with continued growth, and
development of the competition portal

xoxlauraxox · 9 July 2019 at 3:38PM

I hope you get a lovely win soon. Gotta be in it to win it.

BizHighflyer · 9 July 2019 at 3:38PM

cagsd wrote: »

I know you know this already, and I don't mean to be blunt, but if the comps you mentioned are the only ones you're entering, you could be in for a very long wait for a win.
Each of them receives thousands of entries, some in the hundreds of thousands, so your chances of being a winner is pretty slim. I've been doing all the magazine puzzles for about 7 years now and only won with any of them once; I've never won with Heart, Capital etc.
Yes, people do win the big cash prizes, but you only have to look at I Won! board to see that the vast majority of people's prizes are things like tickets, pet supplies, toys, gin etc etc.
I'm not saying you should be entering for anything and everything - I certainly don't enter for anything I'm not sure I could want or use - but cast your net a little wider and enter for (eg) DVDs you'd like, makeup or toiletries if appropriate, food and drink prizes, local tickets, etc etc. You may find you get a few little wins.... although then again, you may not. My supply of small prizes seems to have completely dried up.
However it does seem like you have the right attitude - it's just a bit of fun, and if you win anything it's a bonus. Keep that up and hopefully something will come your way before too long!

Thanks for your thoughts, I think that's fair.
I probably wasn't clear in that I do enter for smaller items, but they're more one-off things I guess. I could certainly enter for more things, however.

WeAreGhosts · 9 July 2019 at 7:07PM

try using the search facility to find smaller comps for things you enjoy - books? gardening? cinema? photography? etc ... Also any particular brands you know you'd like to win from ...

Joolski · 9 July 2019 at 11:24PM

Keep the faith Adam, at any time your name could be picked as the winner. Keep trying, and hope you get a good win soon!

fsmmct · 12 July 2019 at 2:49PM

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

try using the search facility to find smaller comps for things you enjoy - books? gardening? cinema? photography? etc ... Also any particular brands you know you'd like to win from ...

Hi
I'm a newbie to this competition thing and not brilliant on finding my way around forums so please excuse my ignorance
what do you mean by the search facility.... is this to search for specific competitions and is that facility here on MSE
thanks:)
F

Comping for 9 years... 0 wins!

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