my Annual Raffle Ticket

Last week was the day to try to get in on the annual Premier Guitar Mystery Stocking. I've tried to get in on it every year since I first heard them say they were doing it. Some years have been better than others, but this year is the first year I can honestly say that I've been disappointed in it. In fact, not only am I disappointed in what I got, I really feel like PG phoned it in on this one.

Over the years, I feel like I've been a pretty loud voice in my circles reminding folks that PG doesn't promise them anything other than the fact that, if you get one, you're going to get $xx amount of stuff. They never say it's going to be good stuff. They never say it's going to be stuff that you're going to use. They never say it's going to be stuff that you'll like. They just say that, if you'll give them $40 (this year's price), then they'll give you at least $40 worth of stuff. That's all they say. And every year, including this year, that's what they do.

The very first year they did the Mystery Stocking, I actually got a pedal. I don't remember which one...a distortion of some sort that I've long since sold to get something else. That was super cool! And that is also why I continue to buy one every year. Every year since, I've gotten the standard box. That includes this year. At least I think I got the standard box this year. I may've actually gotten the "what do we have left after all the other boxes have been sent out" box this year. If I didn't, and this is indeed the standard box, they just think they've had folks complain about the box contents in years past.

Here's what I got:

• Fender Neon Monogram Strap. Yes, that's your standard Fender strap with the Fender logo all over it. Third year in a row that I've gotten one of these in my box. Retail price: $17 at Sweetwater
• D'Addario Auto Lock Strap. This is a strap I haven't seen before. I'm sure that it's not going to take the place of my nice wide Lakota Leather strap, but I might toss it in my gig bag in case I need a backup strap. I like the idea of it. I use those beer washers on the outside of my strap as a strap lock. This strap doesn't use the washers, but has a mechanism on the ends that is kind of the same concept. Retail price: $30 at Sweetwater
• Epiphone Guitar Picks (heavy). I spent way too long on my pick journey to finally find what I use. These are regular celluloid picks. Not what I use. These will go in my giveaway box and I'm sure I'll end up giving them to somebody. Retail price: $5 - I only found them on the Epi website.
• Gibson Brite Wire Nickel Plated Strings (9s). I don't use 9s, and I have a bunch of sets of what I do use in the closet, so these will go in the giveaway box that I take when I'm playing with friends. The deal is, if it's in there and they want it, they can have it. Retail price: $10 - I couldn't find this specific set of strings anywhere online, so I just kind of threw out an arbitrary price in the range of the other Gibson strings.
• Reverb Sticker. They included a Reverb sticker that I haven't actually seen before. Retail price: $0 - It's a sticker so I'm going to call it a gimme.

So this year, in the box, I got about $62 worth of stuff. I might use the D'Addario strap. I have several Epiphones (and really like them), so I might keep a couple of the Epi picks just because I don't have any picks that say Epiphone on them. Everything else will go in the giveaway box.

PG promised $40 worth of stuff. The dollar value of what I got was right at $60. So why did I say up at the beginning that they phoned it in this year? Why did I say that, if this was the standard box, more people were going to complain this year than have done so in the past? Simple. Two guitar straps. Did they have so little stuff this year from which to choose that they couldn't put a strap and something else in every box?

Or maybe I'm just a little salty because this is the third year in a row that I've gotten one of those standard Fender straps.  No, I don't think that's it. I'm just disappointed that they stuck two straps in the same box. That just seems lazy to me.

So now the question I always conclude with. Will I do it again next year?

Absolutely I will! If they do it again and I am able to get my name on one of them, I still think they're a lot of fun. Like I said, that first year I got a pedal out of it. I also know a guy on a forum I'm on that got a guitar from it 4 or 5 years ago. So I know that they really are giving away the good stuff too. This year, even though I'm disappointed in the box I got, PG still did what they said they were going to do. I gave them $40, and they sent me at least $40 worth of stuff.

At least $40 worth of stuff for $40. That was the agreement. They never said that I would like what that $40 worth of stuff was. They just said they'd send me stuff in a box. Disappointed this year, but I can't wait til next December to do it again.