I know I am not alone here. If you are in any way associated with my industry, then every single day on Facebook or Twitter you are forced to see someone has entered an iPad giveaway and it’s the greatest thing. Then you hear a radio station doing a local promotion and making a big deal that they are giving away an iPad. Now you even hear about people giving away an iPad 2, the latest and greatest.

What is with these? Do people not realize how worthless these things still are? Let me give you some comparison. An iPad wifi only version that is refurbished now goes for $349. Non-refurbished iPads go for $399 on the wifi only version. An iPad 2 starts at $599 in stores. So let’s say for simplicity sake that the “amazing prize” you are getting is valued somewhere between $400 and $600.

You can get a Wii, all 4 controllers with motionplus and about 10 games for that price.

You could get two Kindles, one for you and your significant other, to read books together on the digital device.

You could get about 500 junior bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy’s. That’s two per day for every weekday for a year.

You get buy about 40 new albums from your favorite bands or singers.

You could get a laptop that is actually easy to use and type and isn’t much bigger or bulkier and doesn’t have a little Apple logo on it.

You could buy a brand new 10 foot lovesac for the family room. That or a full size sofa at a wholesaler.

You could buy a 46″ flat screen plasma TV.

You could go see 50 movies at the theater. That’s about one movie per week for a year.

You could get over 100 large blizzards from Dairy Queen.

You could get a small firearm with ammo. Or a puppy that could grow into your guard dog, whichever makes you feel safer.

You could get an Xbox 360 with Kinect.

You could go to a used video game store and buy a Nintendo 64 with about 30 games.

You could get a large, one topping pizza from Papa John’s every Saturday for a year.

You could buy 10 new pairs of shoes.

You could get a motor scooter.

You could buy out all the snacks in a vending machine…twice.

You could get an iPhone, which does most of what an iPad does but more importantly is also a phone.

You could get 300 boxes of bottled water.

You could buy 500 Snickers bars.

You could get an autographed Tim Lincecum jersey.

You could get $600 cash.

There’s plenty of other things I would rather have than an iPad if that much money is on the table for a prize. Think about that the next time you enter to win one of those dumb giveaways.