(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

This week I got my first mail from Publishers Clearing House, offering a chance to win $5,000 a week forever plus bonuses for meeting certain criteria. I'm not sure whether to enter.

I don't kid myself that the odds are as good as they make it sound ("Someone with your first and last initials will win!"), but I trust something as famous as PCH not to scam. While I've had no dealings with PCH before, it certainly doesn't look like the work of an imposter: The included envelope leads to their headquarters, they don't ask for any new personal info, and I don't have to pay even with a stamp. The most suspicious feature was that all the bonus cards -- two for scratching and one bingo square with stickers -- just "happened" to yield ostensibly positive results. It took me some time to figure out how PCH could afford such seeming generosity.

The mail contents hint strongly at the answer: ads that wouldn't look out of place in a Sky Mall issue. PCH appears geared toward people older than me, probably watching a lot of daytime TV. In all likelihood, submitting an entry, with or without victory, would lead to an increase in such mail. Even if I won, I wouldn't want what they're peddling. They'd just waste trees on me.

"Oh," you may say, "but isn't that a piddling price to pay for the potential prize?" To which I reply, first, nice alliteration; and second, I'm not sure I want the prize. I like to think I'd spend the bulk of it on charities, but you never really know what choice you'll make until the opportunity arises. Whatever I did with it, I'd garner unwelcome attention and further complications in my life, perhaps especially in the current climate. I'd feel funny about myself for having the bulk of my wealth come from a sweepstakes that appeals to a low common denominator. (I can just imagine the awkwardness if PCH brought the giant check and a TV camera to my house and didn't know to knock on the side door, but that's a poor reason to decline.)

Seeing as the deadline is February 28, I decided I'd be overly hasty to send or toss the envelope yet. What do you think?

Comments

[delcan.livejournal.com]

Lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math. That, and you're basically paying for things you know you don't want, and an infinitesimal chance at winning something you're not even sure you want. Also responding, no matter what you send, will result in an increase in junk mail to your address. If you're on a do-not-mail list, responding to PCH is legally saying "take me off the do-not-mail list".

It's really not worth the hassle. If you're the gambling type, go to the casino and put the money in a slot machine - statistically, you'll get more out of the machine than you'd get from the sweepstakes. Or buy state lottery tickets; that money goes to things like school funding and other public works projects, where Publishers Clearing House money just goes to a profit margin on a fiscal year report. Or donate it directly.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

But unlike the lottery, PCH doesn't require pay-to-play. Like I said, I don't even have to stamp the envelope. They're the gamblers here. The only way they see a cent from me is if I buy their merchandise, which I probably won't. Or, I dunno, maybe they charge for repeated entries and hope I'll get hooked with the free first dose. Again, I won't.

This is why I resisted the urge to drop the whole thing in the recycle bin on Day 1.

[delcan.livejournal.com]

There will be spam in your mailbox, though, a moderate to sizable amount, which is a cost that has to be considered. If you're the type who likes junk mail, or has a lot of use for scrap paper, then this might be a plus, but most people don't have that much use for third-class mail.

(I had thought the PCH required subscription to actually enter; they must have changed their M.O. My mistake.)

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

It's possible they'll keep sending to me anyway. I've known some tenacious junk mailers who never heard back from me.

Nevertheless, I went ahead and tossed the envelope.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I think my Social Security number got crossed up with somebody who's in his 80's that lives in the same region. I keep getting hearing aid and nursing home ads instead of ads for things I'd actually buy.

As for Publishers Clearing House, I've never won anything from them, even though I entered all their contests for about 5 years straight when I was younger. There's usually one winner and a hundred million losers.

[stevenroy.livejournal.com]

PCH sells a lot of impractical and/or low-quality Chinese crap, severely overpriced goodies, lots of "As seen on TV" items, and tons and tons of magazines... But every once in a while, they actually have something interesting enough for me to buy. For example, that's how I got my DVD of "Lenny the Wonder Dog", starring Andy Richter as the voice of the title character and Craig Ferguson as the villain! (It's actually not that great a movie, but at least it's funny! Especially if you're a fan of Ferguson.)

You're also not required to buy anything from them to enter the sweepstakes. The fact that they know you saw their advertising is good enough for them, pretty much.

I, myself, have had an account on the www.pch.com website for a very long time. For the past five or six months, I've gone there every day to get additional entries into every sweepstakes, and play every instant-win game, offered on the site. (By the way, these are mostly paid for by video ads; you watch a 30-second ad for every game/entry. I often get the same ad up to ten times in a row, though, which is both annoying and amusing!)

(One note about the instant-win games: Some of them give you a choice of what to click on, such as choosing which of three baskets to throw a ball at or which balloon to pop; but it makes no difference at all because the result is actually determined by the web server as soon as the game comes up. Some of PCH's other sites - specifically, PCH Bingo and PCH Slots, operate the same way too; they look like slot machines and bingo cards but are really just more PCH instant-win games. Yes, I play those too. Every day. That's my living now!)

PCH by mail isn't that much different: Yes, the scratchoffs always give the largest prize amount. The bingo cards are always winners. These don't actually give you anything, though, besides entries into their respective sweepstakes!

As for whether or not the time I've spent on all this so far (1-2 hours every night for 6 months) was actually worth the ten dollars I've won so far (If not for that, I wouldn't have bothered typing all this up in the first place!), I'm undecided...