The Eyes Behind the Prize: How We Pick Daily Draw Prizes
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Now, for anyone curious about what happens behind the scenes before those prizes appear in the Daily Draw, let's pull back the curtain…
Yes, we really do window-shop for you
Have you ever looked at a Daily Draw prize and thought,
"How did Slickdeals land on THAT?"
The eyes behind the prizes belong to us: Autumn and emceep. We do a frankly impressive amount of window-shopping, looking for prizes you'd love to win. We consider value, merchant reputation, usefulness, and any catches that could turn a fun win into a headache (like subscription fees).
And yes, we imagine the comment section. If we can already hear the roasting from our desks, we may reconsider.
Sometimes we choose it anyway. And boy, did we get roasted for the $250 wallet. Entries were high, but the comments were very Slickdealer-ish:
"Who would pay $250 for a wallet?"
Well…not many people. That's why we offered it as a prize.
Your entries, comments, and suggestions help shape what we choose next. Sometimes you love a prize, sometimes you give us a collective
"eh," and sometimes a gamble becomes a surprise hit. The "Donate $250 to Your Favorite Charity" giveaway got an especially enthusiastic response, so we'll absolutely do that again.
The April Fool's Day pet rock, however, answers to no one. And I'm quite sure he'll be back someday.
Here's a peek at how we choose them.
We start with one big question
Will members actually want this, and will they be happy when it arrives?
That sounds obvious, but it really is our main goal. A good prize isn't just something with an impressive price tag. It should feel like a genuine win when you open the box.
We look for things that are:
- Useful, fun, or ideally both
- Appealing to a wide variety of members
- Easy for the winner to receive and enjoy
- Something you might really want but have a hard time justifying buying for yourself
That last category is one of our favorites: the
"I would love to have that, but I'd probably never spend the money on it" prize. That's how I felt about the robot window washer. I never even knew that existed until we went prize hunting, and now I desperately want one.
If something looks exciting at first but starts giving us "this may be more trouble than it's worth" energy, it usually doesn't make the cut.
We try not to give away the same type of thing over and over
Even a great prize category can get boring if you see it every week, so we try to spread the love around.
We keep an eye on how recently we've featured different categories, including:
- Electronics and gaming
- Home and kitchen
- Tools and outdoor items
- Sports, fitness, and personal wellness
- Fashion, accessories, and personal care
- Kids and family
- Seasonal items
And, of course, we have Gift Card Mondays. Gift cards consistently seem to be some of our most popular prizes. Apparently, members enjoy choosing exactly what they want. Who knew?

(Just kidding, we knew, lol.)
Our goal is to keep the overall prize lineup varied so that even if today's prize isn't for you, another one soon will be.
We balance broad appeal with the occasional niche prize
Not everyone has a child to shop for. Not everyone has a patio. And not everyone wants the same things.
A niche prize may interest fewer members overall, but for the right person, it could be the absolute best prize we offer all month. We think there should be room for those kinds of prizes too.
Sometimes the calendar helps us choose
Some prizes are simply,
"Hey, this is great, let's give one away."
Others are tied to a particular season, holiday, event, or moment in the community. We may choose prizes for:
- Holidays and seasonal activities
- Major shopping events
- Back-to-school season
- Community celebrations
- Popular hobbies or interests
- Something goofy and fun that makes us laugh
Themes give us a chance to get a little more creative and feature prizes we may not normally choose during the rest of the year.
We love checking "What random holiday is today?" and finding prizes to match. Often, I think members don't even realize we gave away a PetSmart gift card for a pet holiday or an ice cream maker on National Ice Cream Day…but
we know and it makes us smile anyway lol.
Honestly, we have a lot of fun doing this
Picking prizes is work, but it's also a lot of fun.
We get to browse for interesting things, debate which version or model members would prefer, plan out upcoming categories, and see whether the community gets as excited about something as we did.
Our favorite part is hearing from winners, especially when someone tells us:
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"This made my day."
"I never win anything!"
"This came at the perfect time."
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That's the whole point. Giveaways should be fun, and we love getting to play a small part in creating those moments.
Want to help us choose a future prize?
If you could pick a Daily Draw prize, what would it be?
Before anyone says "a yacht," we're generally talking about something in the neighborhood of
$250.
Share your prize idea with us here! [google.com]
You're also welcome to share your ideas in the comments. emceep and I are always looking for the next
"Okay, that's awesome…why didn't we think of that?" suggestion.
We can't promise every suggestion will become a prize, but we really will look through them all. Who knows? You might see your idea show up in a future Daily Draw.
—
Autumn & emceep

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16 Comments
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Inflated vote counts gives a false sense of legitimacy and a flood of "in 4 1" "good deal" "thanks" comments don't really add much.
Inflated vote counts gives a false sense of legitimacy and a flood of "in 4 1" "good deal" "thanks" comments don't really add much.
As far as suitable prizes go, why work so hard thinking of unique prizes when gift cards have such a universal appeal? also would be nice to see bank-issued gift cards like an AMEX or Visa gift card…
Edit: so then here are the other kinds of prizes we would love to see(these are also very popular items when posted on SD): standup desks, treadmills or other exercise equipment, treadmill desks, a rolling kitchen portable island that doesn't require difficult assembly, choice of iOS or android watch(refurbished OK), gasoline gift card, really good vacuum cleaner with best filters, choice of Uber Lyft etc. gift cards, deluxe ninja creami, glass air fryer & glass blender bundle(maybe ninjas), gift card for handyman services.
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https://www.amazon.com/GEMMY-AIRB...162&sr=8-1
16 feet of Frosty Goodness!!!
Under the Official Rules:
...Your email must be listed as confirmed. Unconfirmed accounts are not eligible...
Thanks,
Inflated vote counts gives a false sense of legitimacy and a flood of "in 4 1" "good deal" "thanks" comments don't really add much.
We've made changes to help with this issue, but it's still something we're keeping an eye on. Soon, we're launching a new version of giveaways (live on some surfaces now), where votes and comments will be weighted differently, which may help even more. We'll continue to monitor and adjust.
As far as suitable prizes go, why work so hard thinking of unique prizes when gift cards have such a universal appeal? also would be nice to see bank-issued gift cards like an AMEX or Visa gift card...
As for the prizes - from member feedback, we know that a lot of members like seeing a mix of prizes, not just giftcards. Additionally, if the prize is basically the same every day, it gets a little "stale." We have done a few Visa gift card giveaways, but we haven't done any AMEX gift cards yet, so we'll add that to the ideas list.
Under the Official Rules:
How can I tell if my email is confirmed? Under my Account Settings I see my email, does that mean it's confirmed?
Thanks,
Yours is confirmed
https://www.amazon.com/GEMMY-AIRB...162&sr=8-1
16 feet of Frosty Goodness!!!
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Frosty is the BEST!
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