illustrative The percentages are illustrative, not measured. A console's second-hand value moves week to week and a voucher's resale rate depends on the brand. The structure is the finding; the rates are examples, and each is written so a reader can substitute their own.
Prize Form / The ledger
Ledger
From the announced number to the realised one
This page is the desk’s arithmetic. Five prizes, five forms, and the same three columns for each: what the promotion announced, what had to happen for any of it to become money, and what could be realised. The totals are the desk’s whole argument in two numbers.
Claim stub
- Claim
- PF-54-08
- Subject
- The claim ledger
- Rows
- five prizes
- Realised
- as a share of list
Money2 forms: a credit to a balance, a payment to an account in your name
A buyer3 forms: a voucher, a thing with a market, a personalised thing with none
Attendance1 form: an experience that can only be attended, on a date
A condition2 forms: credit behind a condition, points locked to a product
Direct answerAcross five prizes with a combined announced value of 4,430.00, the amount that could be turned back into money was 1,134.40, or 25.6% of the headline. Two of the five prizes were cash and needed nothing to work; the other three were a voucher with a map, an object with a buyer and an experience with a date, and one of them realised nothing in money at all.
Five prizes, five formsList value: 4,430.00Realised: 1,134.40Retained: 25.6%
How each row was calculated
The ledger on the front page of this desk carries the five rows; this page shows where each figure came from and what a reader would have to do to reproduce it.
- Cash credited to a balance, 500.00. Nothing had to happen: the announced figure is the realised figure, and the only possible deduction would be one the promotion stated. Retained 100.0%.
- A named-retailer voucher, 250.00. The reader did not shop at the listed stores, so the voucher was sold. Resale platforms price a restricted voucher below face value. 250.00 x 0.88 = 220.00. Retained 88.0%.
- A console, 480.00. Delivered and sold second-hand. 480.00 x 0.78 = 374.40. Retained 78.0%, before the time spent finding a buyer.
- A trip, 3,000.00 list value with no cash alternative. Attended and enjoyed, but not transferable and not convertible. Realised in money: 0.00. Retained 0.0%.
- Free plays, 200.00 facing a twenty-times condition. Turnover required is 200.00 x 20 = 4,000.00. At a 4% margin in the operator's favour, the expected cost of turning it over is 4,000.00 x 0.04 = 160.00, leaving an expected 40.00 that could reach a withdrawable balance - and nothing at all if the condition is not completed. Retained 20.0% expected, or 0.0% in the case that fails.
Reading the two totals
The column total, 4,430.00, is the sum of the numbers a promotion would put in an announcement. The second total, 1,134.40, is the sum of what a reader could actually hold as money, and it is 25.6% of the first. Neither total is a criticism of any promotion: each row used a form that is entirely ordinary, and the shortfall comes from the form rather than from anybody's conduct.
What makes the ledger useful is that it separates two questions readers routinely merge. Is the prize real? Yes, on every row - each of the five awards existed and four of them were enjoyed. Is the announced value money? On three of the five rows, no, and on one of those three the answer was zero.
The ledger, as arithmetic (illustrative)
Cash credited to a balance: 500.00 -> 500.00 (100.0% retained)
Named-retailer voucher, resold: 250.00 -> 220.00 (250.00 x 0.88)
Console delivered and sold second-hand:480.00 -> 374.40 (480.00 x 0.78)
Trip, no cash alternative: 3,000.00 -> 0.00 (not transferable)
Free plays, 20x condition: 200.00 -> 40.00 (4,000.00 turnover x 0.04 = 160.00 expected cost)
List values, summed: 500.00 + 250.00 + 480.00 + 3,000.00 + 200.00 = 4,430.00
Realised, summed: 500.00 + 220.00 + 374.40 + 0.00 + 40.00 = 1,134.40
Share realised: 1,134.40 / 4,430.00 = 25.6%
Read as a decision rule rather than a complaint: on three of five rows a smaller cash alternative would have beaten the larger headline, and on the fourth the headline was already cash.
What the ledger does not claim
limit 1
limit 2
not a rule Nothing here says a prize should be refused. A trip is worth attending for a reader who can attend it, and an object is worth owning. The ledger values prizes as money, which is only one of the ways a prize is worth something.
limit 3
no tax No tax line is included. A liability measured on a list value makes the picture worse rather than better, and the shapes this desk gives it are the shapes the tax desk covers properly.
How to build the same ledger for a real promotion. Write the announced value in the first column, the form in the second, and then ask the only question the third column needs: what would have to happen for this to become money, and what would it cost. Where the answer is "a buyer", price the buyer. Where it is "a condition", price the condition. Where it is "nothing", the realised value is zero, whatever the announcement said.