I had a very similar story for the launch of the Xbox 360. Mountain Dew was auctioning one every 10 minutes with points. The obvious thing for me, though, was that you could get a code when signing up with your email. I had my own domain name at the time so I made a few hundred addresses and signed them all up. I actually won two Xboxes but never got the second one. Either they saw it was the same IP or caught on to what I was doing.
As a broke kid who has never won anything in his life, getting that Xbox (right at launch no less) was AMAZING. I was literally dancing with excitement which I don't think has ever happened since.
I sold it after a few months (was more of a PC gamer) and the hundreds that I got for it was also awesome.
Selling it after was a good idea - I built my own iPod Video by fixing broken iPods for friends, and didn't need the Nano in the end. After a few years I gave it to a kid at church in Shenzhen.
However, I did find a way to convert UBS KeyClub points into cash. They're a loyalty-card system similar to frequent flyer miles, and are worth 1 CHF per point. When my friends visited Geneva, we planned to spend the points in the Manora restaurant. But it was shut! After some thought, we found a store willing to accept the points, bought a suitcase, and returned it immediately for a cash refund. Then we had cash to buy a cheese fondue!
The exchange rate was even better when I could exchange points for iTunes songs - the songs were worth 1.40 CHF. So that's how I collected a lot of legal music in the early days of the iTunes Music Store.
Buying a cheese fondue is the most Swiss thing about this story. Cheese fondues were a fad in the US before I was born, and I know a lot of people's parent's who own them and use them maybe once every 5 years.
There's a chain of restaurants called The Melting Pot which does fondue entrees and desserts. Not something we do regularly, but it's an interesting niche.
I did the same thing!!! I won two Xboxes, got them both, a controller, and a ton of t-shirts. my poor postal guy had a vehicle filled with just my t-shirts on Christmas Eve, he wasn't too happy about it, lol.
As a broke kid who has never won anything in his life, getting that Xbox (right at launch no less) was AMAZING. I was literally dancing with excitement which I don't think has ever happened since.
I sold it after a few months (was more of a PC gamer) and the hundreds that I got for it was also awesome.