I have won two things.

Airfare ARN-JFK-LAX on DL for two
Three or fourt nights at a Best Western hotel in Hollywood
2 hockeytickets LA vs ?
Meeting with Mattias Norström afterwards

Airfare ARN-FRA-YVR-LHR-ARN SK/LH/AC for two
Three nights at Westin Bayshore in Vancouver
2 hockeytickets Canucks vs Rangers

On the first trip I took my sister along and on the 2nd one of my best friend. First they
had book us on KL to YVR but I manage to
switch to Star companies since I found a lower price.

Yes you are very lucky. The last thing I remember winning was a stuffed cat when I was 7.

Yes people win. I enter sweepstakes as often as I can both travel and non travel.

Last year was one of my best years and is cool to be a winner, especially when they are family type prizes. My winnings last year included:

100,000 AA miles from local supermarket, which lead me to FT

Daughter (Age 5) won trip for four to Universal in Orlando at the Portifino Hotel. We extended on our own and also stayed at the Hard Rock. (We're a family of four).

Son (Age 8) won trip for four to Santa Monica, CA for the Kids Choice Awards sponsored by Nick TV, where he was one of the kids to help in presenting awards to Destiny Child and Amanda Bynes and all his friends saw him on TV. Stayed at the Loew's on the beach in Santa Monica where I got upgraded for presenting my Loew's card and got miles for all four of us on AA. Sponsored by Burger King. And we passed on getting bumped on the LA flight to Boston. Geez hey I am learning and still learning.

And the wife won a KIA Sportage vehicle from a local supermarket.

Just last month got a call that I won a Nomar
Garciaparra autograpehed bat and ended up meeting him with my son at Dunkin Donuts for pictures and autographs session.

1099s I would only contest the most obvious overstated valuations. I did that for a Pro Bowl trip to Hawaii several years ago, as it was so high as to be a completely unreassoable valuation.

AA sponsored a contest about two years ago and the prize was to go anywhere where they went directly. It was the ultimate father and son trip (Son Age 7 at the time) as we went to Tokyo, Japan. Love to get back there.

Anyway they keys to winning seem to be try and find contests that are local in nature like in supermarkets, etc. In shopping malls, etc any form that asks for your income drop, tear up, walk away ASAP as they will follow up with a telephone call for you to buy/see something.

Internets seems to have a lot of people enter. Again the key is to find ones that may be sponsored by local/regional sponsors such as local TV and radio stations. Most of the time they will ask you whether you want to receive further mailings and you can say no. If they do sent you something you can always click on the unsubscirbe button.

Happy contesting!

And I didn;t win those Delta trips to NYC. But I did try and that is the name of the game to try.

Michael

And the award in the Sweepstakes category goes to...

Macken7

until the next biggest winner posts here.

When I was about 11 or so, I entered this Woolite sweepstakes and the grand prize was a "teddy". It also asked what size I wanted my "teddy" to be. Being a typical 11 yearold kid, I checked off the box for "XL". Guess who won.. and guess what he got.

So, does it fit now?

I laughed for 5 minutes after reading your post, thanks for posting your very funny story.

I won 100,000 frequent flyer miles last year. The 1099 gave a FMV of $2000. In other words, $500 each for four continental US awards. I thought that was ridiculous, since I could easily get tickets from DC to the west coast for half that amount.

I'm claiming $1000 as the fair market value on my 1040. I did attach west coast air fare quote showing the discrepency, as well as the terms and conditions from other sweepstakes showing a lower FMV. We will see what the IRS says.

I was one of the daily winners during Starwoods win the world sweepstakes. They valued the 2 nights in N.O. and two tickets at 1560.00. I printed copies of what thier website said for rooms ($89 a night)and what the tickets actually cost me since I just deposited the miles into my account($121 a piece). $410 was what I actually claimed and everyone was happy with my proof.

A Teddy as in something you wear or a teddy as in stuffed animal?? Ha Ha Ha I sure as heck hope you got a stuffed animal.
What did you do with your prize??

My nephew won a video arcade game when he was 6 or 7. I had entered him one time when I went into Toys R Us. My sister was shocked when a huge truck drove up to the house with a full size arcade game.



[This message has been edited by pointsgirl (edited 03-17-2002).]

I think that we all are in agreement that when you receive a prize in a contest, there is a manufacturers suggested list price and a true selling price for the item involved. A good accountant will make the case for you and save you a great deal in taxes, depending on the type of prize involved. If the award is frequent flyer miles, there is no way that they should be valued at 2 cents a mile. There are too many articles out there that will support a lower value claim. If the prize is really small in value, it probably doesn't pay to spend your time and money to contest the 1099 and fight the IRS.

Nope.

Gave it to my mom but it was too big for her. Ended up tossing it.

Awwww, poor you!!