The Cost of my "Free" Doraemon Plate

A few months ago, Suntory was doing this promotional campaign where by collecting 24 stamps that comes with the purchases of their bottled soft drinks, I could send in a postcard with the stamps for a prize. Usually these stamps collection postcard campaigns will give you a CHANCE to win something, but this was a "sure-win", so I gave it a try. After all, it was one of the cutest Doraemon plates I have ever seen, and it is not available for purchase on the market.

So I was in. I got one of the postcards in the supermarket which had 24 empty slots, bought my first bottle of Dekavita C W-charged and got my first mark on the card. Then I thought I might as well buy another bottle for 2. That was about 180 yen including tax. And I took out my calculator and looked into the rest of the road I just journeyed onto, getting another 22 stamps would have required about 3960 yen more...... wait, what happened to the FREE plate? I was essentially spending over 4000 yen on a plastic plate. Good thing was that I was quite addicted to sugary drinks (not a good thing, actually), but even so, it seemed a bit ridiculous.

However, with the help of some very friendly colleagues who heard about my wish to obtain this plastic plate, they saved up the stamps that they received for buying green tea and gave them to me. Within a month, my stamp card was filled thanks to their kindness. I went to the post office to buy a stamp (which is also kinda outrageous that I had to pay another 42 yen after giving them 4000+ yen worth of business) and sent it off. A couple months late, the campaign ended and I got my plate. I am very glad of this plate that I got for almost free, but also props to those who bought 24 drinks just got a plate.

https://www.suntory.co.jp/softdrink/doraemon/2017spring/