this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2024
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Winning stuff from bottle caps. (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Apparently the story goes that this 20-25 year old bottle was found in 2016(?), which went viral online, and Nintendo wound up sending the guy an unopened SNES anyway. (Plus a bunch of other stuff)

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[–] [email protected] 128 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

Just the whole contests being offline and straightforward in general.

Nowadays, it's "enter the code on our website, view the ads, give us your name and email so we can send you more ads and sell your info to other advertisers. Also, you're not a winner. Buy more [product] and try again!'

I miss the days when your bottle cap said "You won a free 20oz bottle" and you could just hand that to the cashier as if it were cash.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I worked in a grocery store during these promotions. Only the winning bottles had anything printed under the cap, so you could hold an unopened bottle up to the light to see. If you saw text, it was a winner, and I would stash those in the beer cooler for break time.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I know you could peek under the cap that way, but I also recall caps that said "Sorry, try again" or something like that. Maybe those "not a winner" messages were added as a response?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago

Exactly right. It got harder, but not impossible to detect winners once they made that change.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In the summer of 1980 RC Cola was giving cash prizes from the bottle caps of glass bottles. None of it was serious money. I remember five, ten, and twenty five cent winners with maybe a dollar thrown in there every once in a while.

It was pretty exciting for me to find a quarter under my bottle cap. That would buy a candy bar at the time, so sugar rush bonus!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I love the idea of that, but it does not sound very sanitary at all lol.

Edit: Actual quarter or something you could redeem for a quarter?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh no. The amount was printed on the underside of the bottle cap. You had to pull out that little plastic gasket to see it. Then you'd exchange the bottle cap for whatever coin from the cashier.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That makes much more sense, lol. But also, I grew up in the 80s, so the crazy way also checks out.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It would check out even more if Coke had changed their receipe (let me finish) to reintroduce cocaine back into the formula.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The way a few people I know are addicted to Coke, and only Coke, I'm not entirely sure that didn't happen.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Coke addict here. Also tried Coke. Definitely coke in the coke.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I did always wonder the logistics behind that. Did those businesses get reimbursed from the contest runners? I like the idea of them trading in their piles of caps for cash

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, you can find dollar off coupons in stores and the fine print says the merchant will be reimbursed

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

When I worked at a chain grocery store, a manager would routinely close a register to balance the till, but also remove the coupons which were supposed to be compared to the computer system for accuracy, but mostly just got shoved into an envelope to send in to a regional place to sort by manufacturer and claim the $$$.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They did.

When the distributor came to re-stock them, they'd settle up and either get reimbursed or would have a credit applied to their current/next shipment.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

They gave it to the soda distributor who would stock the soda. Guy in the Pepsi or Coca Cola truck would take it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Or, ya know, a bank transfer. Or check. I'm not imagining RC cola coming in with a bag full of cash.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That seems like a "only at participating stores" sort of thing, wbere the local owner eats the loss in exchange for more people in the store.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

It was actually more profitable for the business to accept the bottle cap because the vendors accepted the bottle caps back and gave them an additional eight cents.

I'm sure that doesn't seem like a lot but I mean hey you get an extra couple of bucks you make some kids happy everyone wins. Most businesses typically run on net 30 payments anyway so it's not like it's a huge ordeal for them to hold on to a couple of bottle caps for a week.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

I miss the days when your bottle cap said “You won a free 20oz bottle” and you could just hand that to the cashier as if it were cash.

Stop. PLEASE!

........I can only get SO erect!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

One time I went on a weird streak of one free soda winning me another free soda. It kinda freaked me out, hah.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Loved when that happened. I think my best streak was 3. It was the 10-year old version of winning the lottery.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I had a really long steak of that with scratchers lottery tickets. I bought five $1 scratchers, won a couple dollars, so bought scratchers with them, and just kept doing that. At some point, I cashed in my original $5 because I'd won more than that on a round, but it was a freakishly long streak and I was sad when it ended.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

One time I bought a crunch bar in 1993. I won a free crunch bar. So I walked back into the store to redeem it almost immediately after walking out. THAT one won a free crunch bar. And again, I walked right back in and redeemed. THAT ONE TOO won a free chunch bar.

This went on for some time. After like the 6th one I stopped walking out, and just opened the wrapper at the counter. I ended up paying for 1 crunch bar, and walked away with 17.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry to hear about your diabetes.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nintendo probably also sued him, just because.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean, we can assume OP is lying but there is a follow up in the description of the post.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Mine was a joke. I read the post. (For anyone who doesn't know, Nintendo is very litigious and sues individuals often for piracy. They have the legal right to do so, but other companies kind of ignore the piracy scene. Nintendo is very protective. They are often vicious in seeking punitive damages.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

One time online I said I didn't like LoZ Twilight Princess.

Maaaaaan, I'm STILL paying off the legal fees.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's clearly a game boy, and it seems to be just a third of it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's very odd. To me, it sort of looks like a SNES cartridge, but with a dpad and buttons added.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That’s 100% a GameBoy, and it’s even got Tetris on the screen.

The ME next to it makes me think that maybe you had to get all the bottle-caps to spell the whole name, like GA, ME, and BOY. That’s just a thought though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Yup, lots of stuff like that. I think McDonald’s Monopoly might be last-man-standing in that space. Most likely “ME” and one of either “GA” or “BOY” were super common and 2 of the 3 lived in people’s junk drawers for a decade.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Oh, I see it now!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Nintendo wound up sending the guy an unopened SNES anyway.

It’s the one no one claimed from the contest.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Nintendo wound up sending the guy an unopened SNES

Of course they did, it says '92', which clearly meant an expiry in 2092 starting as of, I don't know, about the year 2000.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Looks like a Gameboy to me.

It's definitely a Gameboy with Tetris on it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

It's like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer eats a box of 30 year old animal crackers and wins an African safari.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Originally posted to Reddit (His cousin found it): https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2bltau/my_cousin_found_a_1992_mountain_dew_bottle_in_a/

Nintendo & Mountain Dew came through (An SNES, Wii U, and Mountain Dew swag): https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2dc93v/update_super_nintendo_mountain_dew_bottle/

Sorry for Reddit links. I don't know how to bypass. Especially on mobile!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Also known as how to get the rest of the kids in the car mad at you for winning a free Dew.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

My friend taught me how to find winners by just looking up at it at an angle. Many free cokes were had in my childhood. It was a sad day when they switched to redeemable codes.