This page presents information about prizebucks and credits and their relative value to each other and to actual dollars. The information presented here is accurate as of 12/13/00 but is subject to change.
As mentioned on the main page, one of the primary goals of playing games on the prizegames.com site is to earn "prizebucks", which you can accumulate and later trade in to "purchase" real merchandise or gift certificates.
In order to earn prizebucks, you play the games on prizegames.com. While the games play, advertisements appear in the playing area and occasionally a pop-up window will also appear (this is how prizegames.com makes money). In general, the better you get at playing a game, the more points you can earn in a game and thus the more prizebucks you will earn.
You can either play games in "free-play" mode, or you can play in "pay-to-play" mode. The difference between the two modes is exactly what you might guess: in free-play mode you play the games for free. You can earn up to 250 prizebucks per day playing in free-play mode. In each completed game you play, you earn between 0 and 6 prizebuks for that game.
Pay-to-play mode is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of playing for free, you purchase credits (which you can do online with a credit card, OR you can also purchase credits with the prizebucks you have earned so far). You then play a game just like you do in free-play mode, but you can now earn more prizebucks per game you play, up to 10 times as many prizebucks as you would earn in free-play mode.
Here's a table presenting the differences between free-play and pay-to-play mode:
| Free-Play mode | Pay-to-Play mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Earning Prizebucks | You earn between 0 and 6 prizebucks per game | You earn between 4 and 50 prizebucks per game |
| Prizebucks Earnings limits | You can earn only 250 prizebucks per day | There is no limit to the number of prizebucks you can earn |
| Cost | There is no cost to play | You play with credits that you purchase either with a credit card or by exchanging prizebucks |
| Progressives | You compete for pools of prizebucks starting at 300 per day | You compete for pools of prizebucks starting at 1,500 per day |
The following table shows how much credits cost when you purchase them with a credit card:
| Price | Credits | Cost per credit |
|---|---|---|
| $5.00 | 50 | 10 cents |
| $10.00 | 110 | 9.1 cents |
| $20.00 | 225 | 8.9 cents |
| $30.00 | 343 | 8.7 cents |
| $50.00 | 580 | 8.6 cents |
| $100.00 | 1200 | 8.3 cents |
| Break-even value* | 7.75 cents | |
*Break-even value means that if you earn the maximum of 50 prizebucks per credit that you have purchased, then you cash in your prizebucks for gift certificates at about $1.55 per 1000 prizebucks, you will have "broken even" in terms of paying for credits and the value you have gotten out of the resulting prizebucks. This does not take into account potential instaprizes or progressives winnings.
As you can see from the above table, you get a better deal when you purchase more credits at one time.
Keep in mind that you can also purchase credits with the prizebucks you have earned to date. As of 12/13/00, the cost of converting prizebucks to credits is 50 prizebucks per credit.
We have seen that you can purchase credits at a cost of between 8.3 and 10 cents per credit. But how much are prizebucks worth? As a reference point for the answer to this question, I am using the cost (in prizebucks) of a $25 Barnes and Noble gift certificate, which currently costs 16,120 prizebucks. Therefore, your prizebucks are worth about $1.55 per 1000 prizebucks. This is a reasonable estimate for the actual value of prizebucks.
Since you can earn
up to 250 prizebucks per day playing in free-play mode, this translates
into about 39 cents per day. If you are a very good player, you
could expect to win these 250 prizebucks in about 2 hours each day,
so one way of thinking about playing the games on prizegames.com
in free play mode is that you are "earning" about 20 cents per hour!
Many of the prizes on prizegames.com are offered at prices that
are much better than the current street value of the item on
another site. For example, a razor scooter costs $99.00 in stores,
but is 58,230 prizebucks on prizegames.com (approximately $90.00).
The nomad 6GB jukebox offered on prizegames.com is going for around
$520.00 at other sites but costs 287,500 prizebucks on prizegames.com
(around $445.00).
Therefore, if you have your eye on a particular piece of merchandise
on prizegames.com, it is generally a better deal to get it directly
from them instead of, for example, purchasing gift certificates for
another site.
In late December, 2000, prizegames introduced a number of
different types of gift certificates.
Different gift certificates actually give you different values
per prizebuck (dollars per 1000 prizebucks, for example). The
following table demonstrates these differences (listed top to bottom in order of best
value):
As you can see from the above table, purchasing internet
cash, especially either the $10 or $20 cards, is an awesome
value. If the merchandise you wish to buy is available for
purchase via internet cash, this is currently the best value
for prizebucks versus real dollars, even surpassing
the cost of purchasing credits at prizegames.com.
Whether you purchase credits online or not is a decision you must
make for yourself. Some people may think that it's silly to ever
purchase credits online, while others can't imagine making the effort
to accumulate prizebucks in free play mode.
However, we should use the information we've collected about how
much credits cost and how much prizebucks are worth to figure out
whether it is a good deal to purchase credits.
Since we know that the best deal we can get on purchasing credits
is about 8.3 cents per credit, and we know that prizebucks are
worth about $1.55 per 1000 prizebucks, therefore if you are a very
good player and you can virtually guarantee that you will win the
maximum number of prizebucks for each game you play (50 prizebucks
per credit), we can see that it would take us 20 credits to earn
1000 prizebucks. Each credit costs at best 8.3 cents per credit,
so 20 credits cost $1.66, and the most number of prizebuck value
we can earn with those 20 credits is $1.55.
Therefore, from these calculations,
it is NOT particularly a very good deal to purchase
credits online if you look at it from purely a value perspective,
even if you purchase credits at the best possible price and earn
the most number of prizebucks per credit.
Of course, there are a few factors we have not considered in this equation
when thinking about the value of prizebucks/credits:
Current values of some different prizes
Current values of different gift certificates
Prize
Cost to purchase
(in prizebucks)Value per
1000 prizebucksNumber of prizebucks
equal to $1.00
Webcertificate $60
35,325
$1.70
589
Circuit City $100 Gift Certificate
59,695
$1.68
597
eToys $50 gift card
31,000
$1.61
620
Webcertificate $25
16,075
$1.55
643
Barnes and Noble $25 gift certificate
16,250
$1.54
650
Crate & Barrel $25 gift certificate
16,250
$1.54
650
Toys "R" Us $25 gift certificate
16,250
$1.54
650
Amazon.com $20 gift certificate
13,500
$1.48
675
Cooking.com $20 gift certificate
13,500
$1.48
675
K B Toys $30 gift certificate
20,660
$1.45
689
Toys "R" Us $10 gift certificate
6,925
$1.44
693
eToys $15 gift card
10,500
$1.43
700
Target $25 gift certificate
17,580
$1.42
703
Webcertificate $10
7,825
$1.28
783
Table 3: Value of gift certificates and internet cash
Values correct as of: January 2002Is purchasing credits online a good deal?
Be sure to check out my separate informational pages on
instaprizes and
progressives!