What was the best free thing you got?

[Gingerbread Demon]

What was the best actual thing you got in a free promotion or giveaway, and what was the best game thing you got in a free promo?

For actual object, and this was the late 90s I got a free corded mouse and keyboard with a promo for blank CDs. It was a coupon you had to send in the post. I didn't expect much in the items but actually that mouse was not too bad and the keyboard lasted 2 years.

Best game was Far Cry 6 which I got for free the the purchase of a Samsung SSD

 

[Timewalker]

In a promotion? Well, about 40 years ago, the Ken-L Ration dog food company had a scratch & win promotion. Each box of dog food had a scratch ticket and you could win a discount off your next purchase, on up to a free trip to one of five cities, if your ticket revealed the picture of a dog.

So I scratched the ticket, expecting to get a coupon for $1 or $2 off the next box of dog food, but was shocked to see the picture of a German Shepherd come up.

I'd won a trip to Germany.

But thank goodness this promotion had the option where you could take cash instead. I had no desire to go to Germany, and the cash equivalent was $2500... which really helped at the time, since I was going to college and tuition and books weren't cheap even then.

The guy from the company mentioned something about this when he came to the house to give me the cheque - that he was glad the prize money went to someone who really needed it and would put it to good use, rather than someone who didn't need it or would spend it frivolously.

When I went to the bank to deposit the cheque, it caused quite a kerfuffle with the tellers, as they gathered in a group to whisper about it. They weren't sure it was legit, so I told them that I'd won a prize in a dog food contest and if they wanted to verify its authenticity, just call the company. They finally decided I probably wasn't trying to pull a scam and let me deposit it.


Honorable mention: I forget which cereal company did this, but for awhile there was a promotion where they included a computer game in each box. That's how I acquired some of the old games I used to play. I remember my dad being confused about why I was buying some kinds of cereal, as he knew I didn't like that kind very much.

I told him, "You can eat the cereal, but I want the game that comes with it." Since my dad loved cereal as a bedtime snack, this was an arrangement that suited him.


But the best free things I ever got, period?

Every single one of my cats over the last 45 years, who were either given to me, or came as strays and decided that I would be okay to live with as their forever human.

 

[LAFR]

... THE MIST, 2007's best movie.

Ah, no.

 

[Non Sync]

I don't recall if it was free or not, but I won a LEGO set at an elementary school raffle when I was about 6 or 7.

I still have it and the original box and this would about 56 years ago.

 

[Velocity]

I was sitting by myself in a cafe eating lunch on New Year's Day and some guy I didn't know paid my check.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm just reminded of another contest I won, this time at a science fiction convention in Calgary, about 30-odd years ago.

It was one of the Thanksgiving weekend conventions, and we were at the Palliser Hotel. For some reason the dealers' room was stuck away in an absurdly small room that wasn't all that close to the rest of the convention. The dealers weren't happy about not getting as many people stopping by to browse and buy, so some of us made a point to buy something - this was before you could buy everything online, so these folks were my source of various SF/F goodies I couldn't get locally.

Anyway, an educational toy store was one of the vendors. Why they thought they'd do well at a small local SF convention is beyond me. But they had a promotion going. Every purchase would get you a raffle ticket for a prize of some kind. I wasn't really thinking about what the prize might be when I bought an astronomy-related item from them, but I got my ticket, they got my name, and I thought no more about it.

But on Sunday, I made one last trip to the dealers' room before we headed home, and the people at that table were quite relieved to see me. They'd held the draw, and realized that all they had was my name - no contact information (they could have gotten it from the concom, but whatever...).

I'd won a board game - a very nice one, of good quality manufacture, that was about the California gold rush. The object of the game was to mine as much gold as possible, while dealing with bandits who wanted to steal the gold. The gold had to be gathered before the train got into town (determined by the roll of a die).

Some friends and I played it on New Years' Eve, and it was a hoot - my boyfriend insisted on rolling the die each turn to see if the train was advancing (he liked making train sounds), and one person decided to hell with acquiring the gold - she appointed herself the town sheriff and focused on capturing the bandits "because I have 5 unmarried daughters and they have to find husbands somewhere!"

I don't remember who won. I just remember getting high on nothing but laughter (the egg nog was NOT spiked!). I still have that game, though I haven't played it in ages.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm just reminded of another contest I won, this time at a science fiction convention in Calgary, about 30-odd years ago.

It was one of the Thanksgiving weekend conventions, and we were at the Palliser Hotel. For some reason the dealers' room was stuck away in an absurdly small room that wasn't all that close to the rest of the convention. The dealers weren't happy about not getting as many people stopping by to browse and buy, so some of us made a point to buy something - this was before you could buy everything online, so these folks were my source of various SF/F goodies I couldn't get locally.

Anyway, an educational toy store was one of the vendors. Why they thought they'd do well at a small local SF convention is beyond me. But they had a promotion going. Every purchase would get you a raffle ticket for a prize of some kind. I wasn't really thinking about what the prize might be when I bought an astronomy-related item from them, but I got my ticket, they got my name, and I thought no more about it.

But on Sunday, I made one last trip to the dealers' room before we headed home, and the people at that table were quite relieved to see me. They'd held the draw, and realized that all they had was my name - no contact information (they could have gotten it from the concom, but whatever...).

I'd won a board game - a very nice one, of good quality manufacture, that was about the California gold rush. The object of the game was to mine as much gold as possible, while dealing with bandits who wanted to steal the gold. The gold had to be gathered before the train got into town (determined by the roll of a die).

Some friends and I played it on New Years' Eve, and it was a hoot - my boyfriend insisted on rolling the die each turn to see if the train was advancing (he liked making train sounds), and one person decided to hell with acquiring the gold - she appointed herself the town sheriff and focused on capturing the bandits "because I have 5 unmarried daughters and they have to find husbands somewhere!"

I don't remember who won. I just remember getting high on nothing but laughter (the egg nog was NOT spiked!). I still have that game, though I haven't played it in ages.

That really does sound like the best fun

 

[Amaris]

Back in the early days of the internet, I was watching our local news and they held a trivia raffle, where if you could answer the question, and be the 1st caller, you would win a prize. So when the question flashed across the screen, I was already AltaVista'ing the answer, and made the call at the same time. I got the answer right as they picked up, I told them, and won the first season of The Bob Newhart Show on DVD.

 

[publiusr]

Once…I noticed metal shavings in my Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (I love the powder—I know, Velveta shells are better).

I sent it back to them..got a letter…and a coupon for another box.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When I was in Chicago last summer, I ate at my favorite diner, Griddle 24 every morning for breakfast. The day I left, I had my usual breakfast before getting on the subway to O'Hare. I had plenty of time, so I wasn't in a particular hurry, but the waitress said that my service took too long (I honestly didn't notice) and so my breakfast was on the house!

 

[Timewalker]

Hm. Speaking of things taking too long... When I was supposed to get my second covid shot, I'd booked an appointment at the pharmacy and arranged a ride with the seniors' centre. When I got to the pharmacy, they told me they had no doses left (hadn't bothered telling me in time to make other arrangements), but one of their people was in Edmonton, picking up another shipment of them - and he'd be back in a couple of hours.

I told them I couldn't wait around that long, as my ride certainly wouldn't, and moreover I wasn't happy at having to pay for a ride for nothing.

When I finally did get things arranged a week later, the pharmacy worker said they felt bad about me having to pay for a ride that first day and not get my shot, so they gave me a $10 gift card.

I promptly used it to get a box of cat litter, as I don't normally shop there (the pharmacy is in a grocery store).

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

When I was in Chicago last summer, I ate at my favorite diner, Griddle 24 every morning for breakfast. The day I left, I had my usual breakfast before getting on the train to O'Hare. I had plenty of time, so I wasn't in a particular hurry, but the waitress said that my service took too long (I honestly didn't notice) and so my breakfast was on the house!

That's pretty sweet

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Yeah, the wait staff at Griddle 24 are always super nice to me (I vacation in Chicago a lot, and I always eat there every morning). Great service AND great food.

I've always loved 24-hour diners like this. When I go to a city I've never been to before, I always make it a point to find an all night diner to eat breakfast. And when I do, I always keep coming back. Griddle 24 in Chicago, South Street Diner in Boston, Fran's Restaurant in Toronto...I love places like that.

I mean, it's not like I actually WOULD eat a full breakfast at 3 AM, but it's nice to know that the option's on the table.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Yeah, the wait staff at Griddle 24 are always super nice to me (I vacation in Chicago a lot, and I always eat there every morning). Great service AND great food.

I've always loved 24-hour diners like this. When I go to a city I've never been to before, I always make it a point to find an all night diner to eat breakfast. And when I do, I always keep coming back. Griddle 24 in Chicago, South Street Diner in Boston, Fran's Restaurant in Toronto...I love places like that.

I mean, it's not like I actually WOULD eat a full breakfast at 3 AM, but it's nice to know that the option's on the table.

I like that, but over here it's different we don't really have diners as such like the USA, at least here in our state, that I know of.

The closest thing to that is a place called the Pancake Kitchen which used to be open 24 hours in the city but not sure if that changed after covid like so many other things.

McDonand's used to have all day breakfast but out of the blue changed that policy and left it to individual stores.

 

[Malicia]

I bought a £100 managers chair from Amazon and the box contained two right armrests so I couldn’t put it together. Amazon dispatched a left armrest and fully refunded the purchase without even being asked. Free chair!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I bought a £100 managers chair from Amazon and the box contained two right armrests so I couldn’t put it together. Amazon dispatched a left armrest and fully refunded the purchase without even being asked. Free chair!

Amazon are a weird company like that, I had a couple of DVDs on order and they arrived late based on the Amazon delivery estimate so they just refunded me the purchase of the DVDs minus shipping because according to them they were late.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Won a prize at the squadron X-mas party when I was a primary flight instructor in Corpus Christi. I got to take a buddy and a plane on a 3-leg weekend cross country anywhere I wanted. So my best friend and I took off to Vegas for the weekend. The flight legs there and back were a taxpayer-funded boondoggle under the guise of good NAVY training. The part where we got obliterated on cheap scotch and scored lap dances from every stripper in Vegas was self-funded. Good times, half a lifetime ago. My friend's son is deployed right now- a naval aviator himself. Makes me feel old.

 

[scotpens]

When I was a 10-year-old Cub Scout, my parents and I attended a Scout banquet where they gave away door prizes. The prizes were mostly cheap, inconsequential stuff like copies of a Beatles sound-alike record album. When they called out the ticket number for the grand prize, lo and behold, it was my ticket! I had won a 10-speed bicycle. However, as it happened, I already had a better bicycle. So I sold the bike I had won to a classmate (for $47, which is about $450 in today's dollars) and used the money to open my first savings account.

 

[Mrs. Silvercrest]

Does a free cat count?

 

[Velocity]

Hugs from my granddaughters. Precious but no charge.