How to win (or not) at McDonald's Monopoly

[Ditto]

I for one am tired of being defeated year after year by the nefarious McDonald’s Monopoly game, which continues on for another two weeks. You excitedly grasp at the two yellows or three railroads you hold, but you can never quite find that final piece. “If only I buy enough fries, the odds must surely favor me!” and other futile rationalizations scream through your head, egging you on into buying more and more with ever-diminishing returns.

Anyway, this is a little raising-of-awareness as to the crux of the game for those who haven't looked it up. I thought I’d just post the rare pieces for each color swatch in the off chance that someone who’s collecting the tabs notices and should be alerted that You May Already Be A Winner. I’m sure there are forumites with the complementary tabs to complete the set if the rare tab holder can’t find it among his or her friends, and everyone wants to see them succeed.

Anybody lucky enough to pick up the winning tabs? Spread the word!
Brown/Purple: Mediterranean Ave
Light Blue: Vermont Ave
Purple: Viriginia Ave
Orange: Tennessee Ave
Red: Kentucky Ave
Yellow: Ventnor Ave
Green: Pennsylvania Ave
Blue: Boardwalk
Shortline RR
Waterworks
Golden Ave
Reference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcdonalds_Monopoly#Rare_pieces)
Piece frequency (http://www.amazing-bargains.com/mcdonalds2008.html), courtesy of PGCo'D.

[Totally Guy]

Brown/Purple: Mediterranean Ave
Light Blue: Vermont Ave
Purple: Viriginia Ave
Orange: Tennessee Ave
Red: Kentucky Ave
Yellow: Ventnor Ave
Green: Pennsylvania Ave
Blue: Boardwalk
Shortline RR
Waterworks
Golden Ave

You get three guesses as to which country this particular monopoly game belongs to.:tongue:

[RTGoodman]

I know the pain - my family and I always end up with a few pieces floating around, but I don't think we've ever won more than a small fry or something.

Good to know these are the ones to look for - I know this time around I've got the counterpart to Golden Ave (Arches Way or something like that), and my family has one of the Utilities and a couple of railroads, but that's all I remember. I MIGHT have Tennessee Ave, but I doubt it.


My idea has always been to go on eBay and look for the ones your missing - I don't know if it has ever been done, but in this day and age it sounds like a good plan.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

did McDonalds decide to extend the game? Yesterday was supposed to be the end of things for this year. The sign in the Mcdonalds closest to me, as well as the game board (currently in front of me) states the game runs through Nov. 3rd. I believe the online portion of the game runs a bit longer, but I think the ability to get game pieces is over.

[Edan]

At least 5 years ago my family picked up Mediterranean Ave. when the prize was just a dumb glass mug with some cheesy monopoly/mcdonalds design on it that came off after 1 washing.

Best thing we ever won, ever.

[Pyrian]

Yesterday was supposed to be the end of things for this year.

Huh, it runs until Nov 17th here in San Diego.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Huh, it runs until Nov 17th here in San Diego.

It very well could. I'm just going off of the material I have. Just for kicks I was looking on Craigslist for pieces, and I find it funny that everyone wants the same pieces, and don't seem to realize that one piece out of every color set is rare. Oh, I found this, which shows how many of the rare properties are out there. linky (http://www.amazing-bargains.com/mcdonalds2008.html)

[RTGoodman]

I took a gander at the official rules on the website, and regarding the end of the contest it said that (1) the in-store version will end "around" November 3, or until supplies run out, (2) that the online game runs until the 17th (I think), and (3) that you've got until like December 31st or something to claim any prizes.

[UglyPanda]

I used to try to win this. Then I stopped eating at McDonald's as often. A year or so later, they admitted that the first couple years of the contest were rigged. After that I completely ignored fast food contests.

[Lycan 01]

I won a free cup of coffee. :smallbiggrin:

[Ditto]

There's something to be said for instant wins, surely. The Subway Scrabble contest had much better odds on free things per purchase, though.

This nutjob (http://cgi.ebay.com/McDonalds-Monopoly-Gamepiece-273-Park-Place_W0QQitemZ220306790672QQcmdZViewItem?hash=ite m220306790672&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14) joined eBay today and posted a Park Place piece (the COMMON one) up for a $50,000 bid. One can only hope that we need not transfer his 'nutter' title to the yokel who places the first bid. :smallsmile:

I added Mr. Cube's link o' depressing paucity to the OP. I didn't realize there were so very few pieces of interest. Alas! If anyone is interested, we might try pooling codes on the tabs to get rolls in the online game. The rare pieces still have enforced rarity, with rolls tied to the winning spaces being released periodically... so it might not even be that fantastic. Bah, forget my pessimism. Pitch in some codes!

I'm going to set up an account and spam in my useless tabs, and we can see if there's some luck in them. If anyone else wants to pitch codes, feel free. The seeded win-rolls make things sort of dodgy, but even if you hit one of those winners you'll still need to have the other two spaces, which means you need a bunch of rolls to circle the board enough to hit them all.


In unrelated news, I have a Park Place tab I'm willing to sell. Comes with a free bridge in Brooklyn.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

There's something to be said for instant wins, surely. The Subway Scrabble contest had much better odds on free things per purchase, though.

This nutjob (http://cgi.ebay.com/McDonalds-Monopoly-Gamepiece-273-Park-Place_W0QQitemZ220306790672QQcmdZViewItem?hash=ite m220306790672&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14) joined eBay today and posted a Park Place piece (the COMMON one) up for a $50,000 bid. One can only hope that we need not transfer his 'nutter' title to the yokel who places the first bid. :smallsmile:

I added Mr. Cube's link o' depressing paucity to the OP. I didn't realize there were so very few pieces of interest. Alas! If anyone is interested, we might try pooling codes on the tabs to get rolls in the online game. The rare pieces still have enforced rarity, with rolls tied to the winning spaces being released periodically... so it might not even be that fantastic. Bah, forget my pessimism. Pitch in some codes!

I'm going to set up an account and spam in my useless tabs, and we can see if there's some luck in them. If anyone else wants to pitch codes, feel free. The seeded win-rolls make things sort of dodgy, but even if you hit one of those winners you'll still need to have the other two spaces, which means you need a bunch of rolls to circle the board enough to hit them all.


In unrelated news, I have a Park Place tab I'm willing to sell. Comes with a free bridge in Brooklyn.

One, they've got to make the prizes that are worth a lot hard to get. I mean seriously, do you think they're going to give more than one 1 million dollar prize out. I thought most knew going in that there are two properties for each color, and one hard one that there are very few things out there for.

As for the online part, it is a completely separate game from the pieces you get off of food in store.

[BizzaroStormy]

A buddy of mine ganked a stack of cups from a couple McDonald's the last time they did this. All he ended up with was a bunch of free food.

Personally, I think a good way to win, would be to get a piece of one of the sets of two, then find someone with the other piece and split the prize.

[Ditto]

That's the theory here, except it's not simply a matter of hooking up with someone else who's gone through enough cups or lives in a different state. They're just all-around rare. :smallfrown:

I get excited on my first set of tabs every time, and then I remember that there's always the one rare one per trio. So getting two our of three is like getting zero out of one that counts. BUt there's nothing wrong with 'just free food'. I'll take that, if you don't care for it!

PGC, the tabs have codes on them you have to enter in order to make a roll and move around the board. The prizes are drawn from separate pools, but you need the tabs to actually play.

[Tirian]

I don't know if it's just me, but I "win" these contests by playing the first week or two, where the tickets are dominated by free food prizes. By the end, those prizes are gone and they seem to be counting on pulling in the sheep who are fruitlessly searching for the rare piece of the "sets".

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

PGC, the tabs have codes on them you have to enter in order to make a roll and move around the board. The prizes are drawn from separate pools, but you need the tabs to actually play.

Yes, I realize that, but a lot of people think that the codes on the tabs you fill out online are the same game as the in store pieces, which they are not. That is the point I was trying to make.

[Ditto]

Aha, I see! Point accomplished! :smallsmile: Even some folks who understand what you're talking about are a bit simple at times and didn't glean the meaning of your words at first... like me.

[de-trick]

im never got into it, but before this year I always thought you needed the whole board

but i have a story to share

me and 2 of my buddies went to lunch at Mc.D's, and he pulled off a park place, he thought he had board walk at home, so we rush to his house, all he did was say what he was going to do with his money, and first when we got to his house we couldnt find his board, so we tore uo his livin room, after we find it, it and look for board walk we see another park avenue. and then rush to school cause we we're late for class, and was just funny that he had these wild ideas, that youd need a billion to pay for, he just had 2 park places

[Raiser Blade]

I haven't played for a while. Never won more then free food.