Rant: Anyone else noticed the quality and quantity of sweepstakes is going down?

K

kcmoviebuff

New member
I've been noticing this trend for almost 2 years. I've noticed that Pinterest sweepstakes are practically non-existent, that Facebook sweepstakes have taken a big hit and that Twitter sweepstakes (to me - just IMHO!) have devolved into massive time-wasting Twitter parties that I refuse to enter (spending an hour reading the faked enthusiastic babble is way beyond my patience level - lol).

For the sweepstakes being listed on this site, I've also seen a large dropoff in quality - prizes being offered often $25 or less or are just not worth the time to enter them. Book sweepstakes? Why bother when you can use your local library's online connection to ILL (Inter Library Loan) to reserve even the most obscure titles for free? GameCheap is another common sweepstakes that should have its own category because most people are not gamers and could not care less about Steam games.

Often the prizes being offered are aimed at women and believe me I fully understand that, as women spend about 70% of the money in this country, but for a male like me it means I spend a LOT of time reading sweeps descriptions to determine whether I want to win that prize, and I would say about 80% of the sweeps are directly targeting women, so I don't even bother entering those. I'm referring to beauty products, women's clothing, purses, coats, jewelry, baby products, kids, brides getting married, honeymoon trips, quilting, sewing (yes, men can sew but not as many!) - the list is endless. Rare is the sweeps targeting just males in comparison, but they do exist. My point is, most of the time each day I spend trying to figure out what to enter is spent avoiding these sweeps. Most trips are neutral but even then there are a LOT more than involve specifically a woman's experice style of trip than there are specifically for men.

And aiming so many sweeps at women makes sense to me - I'm not complaining about this fact, I'm explaining why as a male much of my time gets wasted. And I don't think there's any realistic way to avoid that, unless I stopped entering sweeps, which I'm not - lol.

Got a little off track here, but has anyone else noticed what I have regarding the worsening of the sweepstakes being offered?
 
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kcmoviebuff - I can't recall the exact pattern, but I know sweeps wax & wane throughout each year, with lots around Christmas, then hardly any, then back up in the spring or summer.

As to girly girl prize emphasis? I'm not a girly girl so have no interest in those prizes either.

After the economy tanked I thought sweeps would just trickle away, and they did get a bit depressed, but they have come back better than I expected - some of the big ticket sweeps are HUGE!

Anyway - the trend does seem to be lots of "littles" with a few biggies and very few good mid-range prizes - hopefully this trend will change soon!
 
I suppose if I could re-sell the women's products I should be entering those anyway - lol - but I'm too lazy. Besides, I have no idea what people are willing to pay for (as an example) a fancy handbag supposedly worth $1,800 - enough to cover your taxes and make a profit?

And your last observation is completely accurate - the reason I know is because I have my own system of using bookmarked sweeps folders and I can see the dropoff since I enter every day. And there is also a rise in sweeps that require Instagram to enter (I don't own a smart phone and never will) or require you to send in a selfie, usually with their product or product image in it and I just can't be bothered with those. But I also have always specifically avoided any contest that requires you to (1) Like their FB page to enter (that's against FB rules but doesn't stop some people from doing it, (2) is judged (far too much time and too many entrants) or (3) is voted on by the participants - these are rife with scammers and people trolling for other people to vote for them. Hey, if I could really cook I might enter a recipe but I don't create recipes, I only follow them!

Finally, I am not upset or surprised at the fewer and less 'good' sweeps being offered, I've just noticed it. Heck, I'm happy anybody is giving away anything these days! But I have to tell you, I think we're going to see more cutbacks within the year because the economy is already in the process of flat-lining and they never fixed the 2008 crash problems - they've only gotten worse.

Anyhow, good luck!
 
I'm w/you on skipping sweeps that require Instagram/selfies/Twitter parties & those that are judged {I avoid all contests!} partly because no smart phone but also they won't get that extra pound of flesh from me! :p
 
I understand the frustration. Just keep with it and hopefully it will pick back up for you. I don't trust the $1800 bag contests either. I don't even understand why someone would want one?

BUT! Although I hate to say it cause it can ruin MY odds, but don't avoid twitter parties. Yes, they are annoying. But they last usually an hour or less, and the odds are way greater. I've won 5 of them in three weeks.

Keep sweeping and good luck!
 
I agree with you kcmoviebuff...
Twitter parties really test my patience
I agree with you too Amy...
I do NOT do extra steps for sweepstakes, and what exactly is a contests (again) lol I wouldn't know as I've never seriously entered a judged "contest". If it
involves actual work, I feel it takes way too long and I have bad luck at judged sweeps. I will post a selfie, but that's about as far as I go to try.
Finally, I agree with you too Justiceserentiy...
I don't understand why some want the prizes they do either, if the prize is not practical or useful for me the I almost always pass on entering. I don't like to enter in hopes of selling or trading a prize. Not enough time really, in my opinion, in a day to enter everything.


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BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS NOT TO NOT TRY (IF POSSIBLE)....try try try and enter enter enter.
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Just glad for the sponsors that there are these days, I think very very favorably of them and their products! Yes, even one prize offered is a benefit to me, if I can use it.
 
Can't say as I've really noticed any serious decline in quality, but then again, I've only been majorly in for the past couple of years or so. I don't generally do any of the ones either that require judging and such. The book prizes I don't generally bother with either, though I am on Steam, so I have been trying some of the 10 games ones. As far as some of the "girly" ones, yeah, I wouldn't really bother with something like a $1,500 handbag or whatever, but I sometimes enter some of the other stuff if I think I can sell it, or use it, like a body wash or shampoo.
 
Am in COMPLETE agreement with you, kcmoviebuff. I came to the same conclusions about a year and a half ago. One of the big hints was the quantity and quality of Super Bowl sweeps. Also the olympics that I think are being held this year...crickets...When I started sweeping about 4 or 5 years ago, It seems like I had a win every couple days...even if it was just a Snickers coupon. My first year I won about $6000 in cash and prizes, most IWs. Well here we are half way through the year an I'll bet my total is no more than $500. Last year was just about as pathetic. When I started, I had about 100 IWs to go through every day....now, about 40. I agree, finding quality prizes to enter for is rather daunting.

Having said all that, I have a FedEx "envelope" coming tomorrow, and I can't for the life of me figure out what it could be. Hoping for an affy for a trip! But I never got any notification of a win like that.
 
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