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Click here for my latest results. Pricing is current (up to 20 minute delay). Super-7 Complete - April 21, 2006Well, the last Free Play was played tonight, and I only matched 2 numbers - not good for much. My Super-7 results in the end were:So if you are into playing games, then the Super-7 is better then Tim's. Although, you can't drink the Free Plays... As for Tim's, I still have 2 free coffees to cash in. I have heard that some of the Tim's are running out of cups, so the contest is winding down. I will be cashing my free coffee's in Friday mornings, so we'll see if the Unicity Tim Horton's still has cups left next week. Stay tuned on Monday for the final stock purchase. So far my portfolio is posting a return of about 5% over 2 months which is an annual return of about 30% - wish my RRSP did half that well. (Good thing I'm paying for financial advise, eh?) Hurray for common sense! - April 19, 2006Tim Horton's has ruled on the crazy cup caper in Quebec. From CBC, Tim's has awarded the Rav4 to the family of the 10 year old who found the cup!Let's recap in case anybody out there still doesn't understand some very basic, common sense principles: The last paid for Super-7 tickets scored me another Free-Play, so stay tuned for one more week of lottery fun! Winding down - April 13, 2006Bought the last Tim's yesterday (medium, Please Play Again). Bought the last tickets today - will see what comes of it.Updated the stock page - the 'Current' prices are now real time. Going out with a bang! (or maybe just a pop) - April 7, 2006Well, tonight, I won the lottery! Ok, it was just $10, but still its better then nothing, and it will buy a bunch of coffee (ok, just 6 large double-doubles). As if that wasn't good enough, I also scored 2 more free plays. Seems like the lottery is definitely pulling ahead of Tims. (And I keep telling my kids its not smart to play the lottery....)The test is winding down. Next week will be 2 more official coffee purchases and 2 more quick picks - plus my free ones. The stocks will go for a few more days after that just to finish off the original 'investment'. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.... Kaboom! - Fire / explosion at a TO Tims kills a man - April 3, 2006Not sure what the guy was thinking, but based on news reports, someone entered the bathroom at a Tim's in Toronto, smelled gas, saw a jerry can and ran. Moments later a fireball / explosion took out the can and someone inside. CBC has a couple of articles - the explosion, and another about the investigation. Others like Canoe are also covering the story.I'll leave the jokes about rolling up a "Please Play Again" once too often for another time. The Super-7 came through again. 2 Free Plays this time! That's 4 Free-Plays in 17 quickpics (51 sets of numbers). The official odds of winning any prize are about 1 in 6, so I'm ahead of the game here! (Slightly below 1 in 4.). It has stopped raining - prizes at least - March 31, 2006Judging from how fast the water in my well / sump pits has risen in past 24hrs, the rain outside is definetly melting a lot of snow! Tim's stock shot up, tripped and seems to have stabilized for now around $31 / share.I scored another coffee on Tuesday (wahoo!). Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have me heading back on track (Please Play Again). That said, as of this morning here's a run down of prizes awarded according to Tim's site: I'm 4 for 25 officially, which is still slightly better then the stated 1 in 9 odds claimed by Tims. When it rains - it POURS! - March 24, 2006Wow, where to begin. Well, Tim Hortons went public today with an IPO of $27cdn / share. So in honour of that, I 'bought' 0.037 shares as part of my comparison (instead of the usual random pick). As for my odds, well they just caught up to me. After going over 17 cups without a winner, I won a coffee yesterday. Figured I'd save that for later in the day and bought another medium this morning - and won another coffee! It's been a long week (bought a new PC on the weekend - all parts to be exact, and have been up way to late putting it together), so I cashed in one of my free coffees for an Extra-Large (I know, it's not what I'm supposed to get, but I'm not planning on submitting my results to a scientific journal anytime soon...). Rolled up the rim on that big boy and won another coffee! So the last 3 coffees (2 mediums and 1 extra-large) have all been winners! Tims is finally pulling ahead of the lottery! Must have been all that good karma from the IPO - Go Tims! I WON! - March 23, 2006Ok, so it's just another coffee, but at least I'm not a total loser! (Ok, your opinions may differ, but I'm ok with that.) So now I'm officially 1 in 18. The Super-7 is still out performing Tims, and its getting difficult to find a stock to pick, the random stock picker (that uber slick piece of VB code I wipped up in less then 5 minutes) really likes generating single letter ticker symbols...Tim's IPOAbout that random stock picking - I'm thinking I might skew that a tad. Seeing as how Tim Hortons will be traded seperately from Wendy's as early as this week, when they are listed, I'll add them to the portfolio that day.... 15 minutes of fame - March 18, 2006Seems like people across the county are tracking their winnings. In Ontario, specifically the St. Catharines Standard there is an article about us folks tracking our chances with the coffee contest. Its good to see I'm not alone. Even though I still haven't won anything from Tim's - but I've won another Free Play with the Super-7.More commentary on the odds of winning - March 15, 2006Again, from CBC comes a commentary on whether the odds of winning are skewed based on where you live. Seems the people in Quebec might have a better chance of winning when compared to other parts of Canada. That might explain why it some people are winning more by dumpster diving in Quebec then I am in Manitoba. Officially, I'm 0 for 11 with the mediums. Its getting tough to stick to the game plan. People - RELAX - It's just a game - March 11, 2006The previously mention saga of 2 school girls and their Rav4 has taken the inevitable twist. Seems someone thinks they are the one who threw the cup out, have hired a lawyer and are asking for a DNA test on the cup to prove it was theirs! From the CBC article: the whole thing seems to be spinning out of control . Geee, ya think? Meanwhile, officially I'm 0 for 9 (and actually 0 for 10 or 11 as I've had a couple extra cups here and there). Update - March 8, 2006Well so far I'm 0 for 7! I've done better playing the Lotto Super-7. My stocks aren't doing to bad either (too bad I didn't put my money there...). Tim's has a count of the number of prizes handed out to date. Seems to be a bit behind, as according to Tim's site there are no prizes claimed and yet the Tim's on Portage Ave this morning was claiming over 1100 prizes won at that location alone. File this one under either - 'No purchase required' or 'Relax, its just a game!'. Either way, seems sometimes we Canadians aren't all that good of sports after all. CBC has a story about a 10 year old girl who found a winning cup - but not just any winning up - THE WINNING CUP. So far the story is as follows: 10 yr old finds cup, can't roll up the rim and gets help from a 12yr old. The cup's a winner, the kids tell their teacher who calls the parents. The 10 yr olds father claims he was going to sell the car and give some money to the 12 yr olds family. That's not good enough for the 12yr olds parents who using a call in radio show as for legal advice on how to claim the prize! This ticks off the 10 yr olds father who now says - Too bad! Tim's response is "who ever hands in the cup gets the keys". The 10 yr old's father apparently has the cup. Some more feedback about the Tempest in a Tim Horton's cup. Again, assuming the story is true, the 10 yr old's family has the ace here as far as I'm concerned. However, some suggestions posted are interesting - have the $ split 50/50 (or maybe 60/40 for the 10 yr old) and placed in a trust / RESP until they are adults and keep the childish parents out of this. Let the games begin! - February 27, 2006Well its that time of year again. One the great icons of Canadian society is holding it's annual contest. Tim Hortons Roll up the Rim to Win! This year I thought it would be interesting to compare my odds of winning with the odds of winning the lottery or winning at the stock market. Based on the official rules and regulations, I have calculated the odds of winning a big prize in the province of Manitoba (where I live). In case the previous link no longer works, the rules are also available here (downloaded from Tim's February 28, 2006). I have also looked up the odds of winning various lotteries. The best odds appears to be the Super-7. To add to the entertainment / education value of this highly (un)scientific research, I'm also interested in calculating potential winnings of the stock market. Stock market winnings will be strictly theoretical as I do not currently have an account to actively trade stocks, and besides, the amounts involved in each trade may not actually be possible. Tim's is real money, and the jury is out regarding whether I'll actually ante up for the lottery tickets, or just generate my own numbers and see what happens.
A medium coffee (one cream / one sugar) costs $1.26 each.
At the end of 6 weeks, I will compare my 'winnings' from each of the 3 'investments'. So without further adieu, here are the results. Others who are or who have attempted similar projects |