Sega presents: The worst offer of all time

[Wavelflack]

I scanned this quite some time ago, from an issue of Sega Challenge (or maybe it was Visions by that point?), and just came across it while cleaning up my files.

I can't believe how many hoops you have to jump through for a measly stinking $5.
http://www.photodump.com/direct/wavelx/worstofferever.jpg

[NE146]

Wow.. I could have gotten it for $94.99! :beaten:

[Push Upstairs]

All that for $5?

SEGA, how generous!

[Mayhem]

Blimey, too true, I wonder how many people actually bothered?

[Damaramu]

LMAO! That's a rediculous offer.

[DeputyMoniker]

Holy crap. I'd like to have one of those rebate coupons in my collection. I bet you could count the number of printed coupons on one hand.

[XYXZYZ]

It doesn't seem like much but just remember, in 1989 $5.00 was the equivelant of like, $6.00 of today's dollars.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I scanned this quite some time ago, from an issue of Sega Challenge (or maybe it was Visions by that point?), and just came across it while cleaning up my files.
Hey, that's from the TEAM Sega Newsletter, which was called Sega Challenge for one or two issues. Do you have more full issues you could scan? I'd love to see some of them. Only have one myself, issue #7 (I think) with Alex Kidd In Shinobi World on the cover.


...word is bondage...

[Wavelflack]

Yeah, I have several. I'll see about scanning them in the future.

[77punk]

Hey SEGA is just trying to give back to the faithfull consumers! Its you haters is the reason they dont make hardware anymore!! I LOVE SEGA!

[GarrettCRW]

That scan is but one of the many reasons why Sega lost the 8-bit console wars.

[DeputyMoniker]

Hey SEGA is just trying to give back to the faithfull consumers!

Point taken. I guess it wouldn't exactly sell me a game but if I've already gone through the motions, I appreciate the $5 offer.


Its you haters is the reason they dont make hardware anymore!!

...not really.

[Bratwurst]

How many rebates for single video game purchases out of 1989 can any of you remember? I can probably count them on one hand. Nintendo did a few, but that was court-ordered (and kind of an empty gesture, at that.)

[Gamereviewgod]

You had to spend $150+ just to get the five bucks. Their process makes it seem like they're handing out pure gold by the pound.

[Graham Mitchell]

You had to spend $150+ just to get the five bucks. Their process makes it seem like they're handing out pure gold by the pound.

Umm, okay. I may have been a little late to the party, but I bought Phantasy Star in 1990 for $10 on clearance (the SMS was still alive at that point, too). Now, I know Phantasy Star IV retailed at $99.99 when it was launched, but how much did Phantasy Star cost when it was released?

[cyberfluxor]

Wow, that's a crazy oddball request of a deal. I wouldn't have dealt with it due to the time it'd take to do it, mutilate your games box cover, then the long wait in the mailing system and the transferring. Ack, I'm good.

[Neil Koch]

Umm, okay. I may have been a little late to the party, but I bought Phantasy Star in 1990 for $10 on clearance (the SMS was still alive at that point, too). Now, I know Phantasy Star IV retailed at $99.99 when it was launched, but how much did Phantasy Star cost when it was released?

It was $70.

[Gamereviewgod]

Umm, okay. I may have been a little late to the party, but I bought Phantasy Star in 1990 for $10 on clearance (the SMS was still alive at that point, too). Now, I know Phantasy Star IV retailed at $99.99 when it was launched, but how much did Phantasy Star cost when it was released?

Yeah, but you need to buy TWO games before getting Phantasy Star, on top of the cost of the game. If Neil is right and I'm sure he is, that bumps it up to $170 dished out to get $5.

[sickdrummer420]

yea i have like every issue of these magazines. i gotta scan them sometime also.

[k8track]

Mmm, empty gestures. I love them. I feed off of them like an energy vampire. The sheer dumbassitude of this offer is particularly gorgeous. If they only had a few more hoops to jump through and even more things to buy and send in for even less of a rebate, that would have been freakin' sweet.

If I had done this back in the day, after making all the necessary purchases and filling in all the paperwork, I would have sent those receipts and UPC codes via overnight Federal Express courier to make it a true pyrrhic victory.

On a related note, anyone ever collect 100 of those coupons worth 1/100 of 1 cent just to get the penny? Project!

[Flack]

On a related note, anyone ever collect 100 of those coupons worth 1/100 of 1 cent just to get the penny? Project!

I'll see your coupons and raise you some tickets. After comparing a few known prices to items under the glass display, I recently concluded that Chuck E. Cheese tickets are worth approximately 1/3rd of a penny. I deduced this when an action figure that sells for $6 at Wal-Mart was marked 1800 tickets.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

How many rebates for single video game purchases out of 1989 can any of you remember? I can probably count them on one hand. Nintendo did a few, but that was court-ordered (and kind of an empty gesture, at that.)
It was real common at this particular period, actually. Looking through video game magazines from 1989 and 1990, almost every advertising page had a little cut-out coupon in the bottom corner that said "Send this in with your proof of purchase and we'll send you a $5 rebate or a free strategy guide or newsletter or something like that.

I used to send that stuff in all the time. I would even take the UPC tags off boxes at the rental store to send in for games I hadn't even bought...what a young grifter I was. I can remember getting a couple rebate checks (they always took like 8 months to get to you) and a hint book for Crystalis and a subscription to the "Taxan Times," which was like a fold out poster of a newsletter that I think lasted three or four issues. I wish I still had those, they were pretty cool actually.


...word is bondage...

[Bratwurst]

Aren't you in the UK? North American market was a different animal. Guides and newsletters aren't cash rebates either, they're extensions of advertising.

[Push Upstairs]

Its you haters is the reason they dont make hardware anymore!! I LOVE SEGA!


SEGA hater. LOL

LOL Oh my.

[exit]

I can only imagine the rage one might have felt when they never recieved the coupon, I'm sure Sega just laughed it up and said their UPC's must of gotten lost in the mail.

I remember at one point there were game coupons on the back of cereal box's, usually for games that nobody actually wanted. I think I might have one for those SNES Loony Tunes games in an old box somewhere.

Anyone remember when magazines were giving away complete TG16 consoles with a crossword type send in? I think it was the Videgomes magazine that was doing it and maybe even Gamepro.

[Snapple]

Hey SEGA is just trying to give back to the faithfull consumers! Its you haters is the reason they dont make hardware anymore!! I LOVE SEGA!

Fanboy alert. ;)


Nobody's mentioned this yet, but not only did they want you to buy three games just to get a $5 rebate, but they wanted you to mutilate your boxes for their UPC codes. I don't think most people here would be willing to do that.

[Push Upstairs]

Anyone remember when magazines were giving away complete TG16 consoles with a crossword type send in? I think it was the Videgomes magazine that was doing it and maybe even Gamepro.


The ones i remember are where they offered NEO GEO, SNES, Genesis, systems, some huge ass TV with a big stereo system & a computer.

Fill out some easy ass puzzle thingy and then send in like $5.

If that just doesn't reek of total scam.

[exit]

The ones i remember are where they offered NEO GEO, SNES, Genesis, systems, some huge ass TV with a big stereo system & a computer.

Fill out some easy ass puzzle thingy and then send in like $5.

If that just doesn't reek of total scam.

Ah yes thats what it was. I remember filling them out, but never sending it in, $5 just felt way too important back then.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Oh yeah, I remember those contests. They were put on by some third party company, not the magazines themselves. They ran every year or so for like three or four years. The prizes were so great, especially when pictured all together in the magazine.

I entered the contest once when the prizes were things like a Neo Geo and a Genesis with Sega CD and stuff like that. There was at least one earlier one that had a TurboGrafx in it, too, and at least one later one that had a 3DO and Jaguar. So there were at least three, maybe more.

As Push mentioned, the intial puzzle was easy as hell and you sent it in with $5 or something like that. With the first entry you also chose between different prize categories, one was just the video game systems, another was all the home theatre stuff and the third option was both categories and you paid twice as much of course.

About six weeks later, you got a second puzzle in the mail and had to complete it and send it in with a second payment. At that time you also had the opportunity to buy into extra prizes should you be the ultimate winner, they were things like game shopping sprees and upgrades to the systems and stuff.

About six weeks later, you got a third puzzle and had to send another check. That repeated maybe five or six times altogether. The puzzles got progressively harder, but always remained easy, of course, because why would the contest organizer want to eliminate anyone if they're getting a check for $10 from every contestant at each stage? Finally, after about 8 months of those easy puzzles with definite solutions, the last one came and it was a more open-ended sort of puzzle. It was a grid maybe 40x40 that you had to fill in completely with words horizontally and vertically with each letter having a specied point value like Scrabble. Whoever got the highest score on that last puzzle won the entire contest.

I remember tweaking and tweaking my word box to add one or two points here or there. It was actually a pretty fun puzzle to do. I even went to the library and used the Oxford English Dictionary as a reference for more words that my dictionary at home didn't have. I hestitated on using the most archaic words, though, even though they often had the most valuable letters. I didn't win the contest, needless to say, and when I saw the winning entry, it was of course loaded with archaic words out of the OED, so if I'd used those I probably would have won. My score was really close to his even without using all those words.

I don't think the contests were any kind of scam, though. At least not any more than any other contest that you have to buy into. I expect that the ultimate winner truly did win whatever categories and extras he'd bought into, though. The organizers would have made plenty of money on the whole thing anyway. I don't remember anymore how much money I put into the thing altogether, but not more than like $40 I don't think.


...word is bondage...

[NE146]

It was $70.

I paid $99.99 for mine. I'm sure of it.. that being said, I'm also sure it was just my area of the world. I also paid $99.99 for SNES Street Fighter 2 :-/

[-hellvin-]

Then take this 5.00 coupon, take it to the fires of mount doom and wait...fuck it.

[Cryomancer]

That is a shit deal.

And I remember those word puzzle contests too. I would love to get more info on if anyone actually confirmed getting any of the prizes. I always wanted the systems myself. I think I did maybe two rounds worth one time. It WAS hard to get the 5 bucks together to move on.

[Neil Koch]

I paid $99.99 for mine. I'm sure of it.. that being said, I'm also sure it was just my area of the world. I also paid $99.99 for SNES Street Fighter 2 :-/

$70 was the MSRP, but it went over that at some stores. I remember seeing it at Best (a chain that's now out of business AFAIK) for $80 - but they regularly jacked up cart prices $5-10 above stores like Target or Best Buy.

[Mark III]

I wonder if deals like this were a common occurance? I have several Master System and Genesis games with the UPC cut off and always wondered why someone would do that. My theory of them cannibalizing their cases to fuel their barcode battler addiction just went out the window.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow.. I could have gotten it for $94.99! :beaten:
True...although I wonder what an actual new-in-the-box PS would be worth today.

[segagamer]

Actually, I participated in the $5 rebate and submitted the barcodes as specified on the rebate form. Since I paid list prices on SMS games back in the day at Toys R Us, having even $5 back when I was in my early 20's was a big deal for me. I also participated in the free Double Dragon offer and got my copy for free.

I also remember Phantasy Star being priced at $69.99 when it debuted back in 1988 at Toys R Us.

[Neil Koch]

I wonder if deals like this were a common occurance? I have several Master System and Genesis games with the UPC cut off and always wondered why someone would do that. My theory of them cannibalizing their cases to fuel their barcode battler addiction just went out the window.

Yeah, they were pretty common back then. Not just for video games, but pretty much every rebate required you to send in UPCs.

[Jorpho]

It was not so long ago that Del Monte had an offer to send you Donkey Kong Land (for the B&W Game Boy!) for half price, with three proofs of purchase from packages of fruit cups. That was actually a pretty good deal.