Unusual prizes

How much attention to you pay to the prize of a competition?  Are you the 'enter anything' competition and think that if you don't like the prize then you can sell it on e-bay.  Or do you carefully read what all the prizes are (including runner up prizes) and only enter if you really want it.

But what about the current Firebox competition to win 50% of the profits from a new product.  You have to design it and Firebox will choose the best idea, make it and give you 50% of their profit.   Ideas for good selling products are hard to find.  I know that actually getting something to market does take a lot of effort but it is the (good) ideas that are hard to find.  The winner will also probably wait sometime for their prize.  How long will it take to get the product on the website, and how much longer before they start making a profit - possibly never.  I know that Firebox are a well known site but how will they define 'profit'.  On the other hand I do see that they are already selling last year's winner.  Would you spend your time on inventing something with so vague an outcome?  Though at least it isn't a voting competition.

Rewards

Isn't it strange how you can just not notice some things.  I have been saving points from Twining teas but it is slow going as it is really only me who drinks tea here.  However, I was entering a competition for Canderel the other day and noticed that I had some points with their reward scheme.  I thought this was a bit strange as I don't really use this product and have never entered any points into their scheme.  So I looked further and discovered these points were gained via the Twinings scheme - why?  I realised that the scheme was run by a company called Coinks so I went to their site and found that you could use points from several different schemes together.  How many Andrex and McVitie's packets have I thrown away without noticing this scheme.  I now look forward to increasing my points.  It just goes to show that you should always look at packets before you throw them away as you just never know what you may find.

This isn't what I was going to write about today but as I have forgotten what that was  .....