Competition winners

How do you know someone's a professional comper? I didn't even know there was such a thing !

You live and learn eh?

I would like to say I won 2 prizes recently having rarely won anything in my life...but God loves a trier so my Nan used to say so I do tend to enter competitions if I see them.

Acouple of years ago I won one of five high chairs that were on offer. It was a plastic chair that fitted on a dining chair and it was a godsend for DS as they were living in a tiny flat with no room and no money. I also won a trip to Chessington which was much enjoyed by DD and GS1.

I never enter things, so but agree it's great when I actually recognise the name of a winner, as "one of us". I know on Money Saving Forum there is a whole thread about the regular "professional" compers.

I won an iPad on here several months ago, such a huge surprise! But yes, I know what you mean Riverwalk about it being nice when a familiar name crops up as a winner

I was delighted to win a four day holiday.

Until I found out I had to pay £40 x 2 (£80) deposit to access the PRIZE!!!!

No way !!!

Don't worry theBeeb the holiday was very likely four days on a campsite in Outer Mongolia in February.

Or a timeshare Thebeeb!
They would spend 4 days trying to relieve you of several thousand pounds

Yes probably right. Won't lose any sleep over it. And your post gave me nice little chuckle!!!

Ah yes, easy enough to register but a lot of the names of winners never appear on a thread. I agree with others that say they are professional compers.

Those of us who have been around from the beginning recognise regular posters.
Sadly there are people who come on for the purpose of getting support for various things and then tootle off never to be heard from again, this is a bit cheeky.

God, Jalima, don't go there! Raises too many spectres for me!

UDATE AND CORRECTION.

Further to previous posts I have been in touch about my holiday and had it clarified that I do not need to pay the deposit as it was a prize. So thanks to Riverwalk for jogging my memory I shall maybe plan a few days away.

I could probably have been classed as a professional comper when my DC were small. I won some amazing prizes, including trips to Tennessee, Mauritius and Montreux and World Cup final tickets for the men in my life. It was actually hard work in those days, tracking down elusive entry forms, spending hours polishing slogans, scouring through reference books in the library (remember those?!) for the answers to obscure questions. Very rewarding though. These days it's all just go online and click into a free draw, and I only enter the Gransnet and Mumsnet ones. I have had a couple of wins though, so I'm not complaining!

I confess, I am a professional comper. Well I enter lots of competitions but the only people I know that make a living from it are the ones that write about entering competitions. There is no way you can make a living from entering competitions, so there cannot be professional compers. Looking over my list of prizes I see that I last won in December. Do you think I should stop entering Gransnet competitions?
Sorry if this is a bit terse, but it is a sore subject.

I won a Warner's Holiday break on GN and it was such a surprise when I did! That was in 2013 and I haven't won anything since other than several books on the book of the month offers.(Which I love)

I agree that it would be good to have a minimum number of posts entry qualification for competitions.

Asking a question that means you have to read some posts is a good idea.

It depends whether Gransnet are rewarding members or trying to attract new ones.

Well, I think I agree that people can't make a living from entering competitions now, Tizliz, but it was possible back in the day. My sister, who gave me the comping bug, won prizes worth far more than her previous salary as a librarian. Granted they were all in the form of holidays or luxury goods (or oddities such as a year's supply of Oxo cubes ), but even so... I do miss my comping - it was the best hobby I ever had!

It was always annoying, though, when some friends would tell you how lucky you were. Poor souls, they never won a thing - probably because they never entered!

I am like Riverwalk and I am always pleasantly surprised to see a name that I recognise- ie one who posts fairly regularly.

That is an excellent idea asking people to post x number of times before they become eligible.

The problem there is that they will post the x times and we will never hear from them again until they win something.

Well maybe they should be required to post x number of times with y number of posts in the 4 weeks prior to their entry.

I entered competitions right from the the very start of GN and was quite lucky in what I won but it has got less and less over the last couple of years even though I always enter but thats part of GN growing isn't it and becoming more popular and well known,with regard to professional compers how do we know they are genuine Grans their information could be entered to give that impression and they could just be youngsters.

There are people who will enter a competition whatever the prize, and you see comps with 15000 entries for a bar of chocolate (I do not lie). But it is usually the promoters fault. If you don't put any restrictions on then the whole world can enter. I only enter for things I want and I tend to avoid the small prizes because the promoter is possibly building a mail list (and could sell it). Maggiemaybe is right, it used to be possible to win more but you had to go out your way to find entry forms, and go to the library to look up answers. To me it is just a hobby and other people to chat to. Also you find lots of nice internet sites.

Thought - perhaps I found Gransnet through one of their competitions