How to enter a car giveaway for free by mail

The free mail-in entry is the no-purchase route that keeps a car giveaway legal. You hand-print a card, mail it to the address in the official rules, and it goes into the same drawing as the paid entries. 61 of the 77 live giveaways we track accept one, and a typical card costs about $0.88 to send.

The catch is that mail-in rules are strict, and small mistakes void entries. This guide walks through the whole process with numbers taken from the official rules of every live mail-in giveaway.

What an AMOE is

AMOE stands for alternate method of entry. A drawing with a prize, chance and a required payment is a lottery, and private lotteries are illegal, so a sweepstakes has to offer a way in that costs you nothing. The US Postal Inspection Service's consumer guide is blunt about it: you never have to buy anything to enter or win, and your chance is the same whether you order or not.

The stamp doesn't change that. Wisconsin's statute, for one, lists the price of postage to mail an entry among the things that don't count as payment. Most car giveaways use mail for their free route; 11 live giveaways use a free online form instead and take no mail-ins.

A free entry counts exactly like a paid one in the drawing. What varies is how many entries one card earns, and that number is set by each giveaway's rules.

The four kinds of mail-in entry

Size matters for the bare postcard. USPS only charges the postcard price for a card between 3.5 x 5 and 4.25 x 6 inches, so a 4 x 6 card qualifies and a 3 x 5 index card falls short. Every live giveaway that asks for a 3 x 5 card has you seal it in an envelope, which mails at the letter rate.

Step by step: a mail-in entry that counts

1. Read the current rules for this exact giveaway. 8 sponsors have more than one giveaway open right now, and the address, deadline and card rules can differ between them. Use the rules linked from the listing, not a copy you saved months ago.
2. Use the right card. 31 of the 61 live mail-ins specify a 3 x 5 inch card and 7 a 4 x 6 postcard. 9 say index card specifically, while 23 accept card or paper. When the rules say index card, use index card stock, not cut printer paper.
3. Write the required fields in the order listed. The table below shows what's usually asked. Only 1 live mail-in demands a strict order, but copying the rules' order costs nothing and leaves no room for argument.
4. Hand-print it yourself. 53 require the card to be handwritten, 55 ban photocopies or mechanical reproduction, and 32 say the entrant has to write it personally. 6 specify an ink color. Print in block capitals so the administrator can read every character.
5. Copy any bonus marking exactly. 29 live mail-ins let you earn extra entries by writing a code, date or word on the card or envelope. Copy it character for character. Some rules void the whole entry if the marking doesn't match the bonus period of your postmark.
6. Address the envelope by hand. 49 require a handwritten envelope, 28 specify a #10 business envelope, and 10 require a return address. Copy the mailing address exactly as printed, including any “c/o” or department line.
7. One card per envelope. 34 rules say so outright and 42 require each envelope to be mailed separately. Packing a stack of envelopes into one box is the bulk mailing those rules reject.
8. Use a stamp, not a meter. 7 live mail-ins ban metered postage and 19 void anything that arrives postage due. A Forever stamp ($0.82) covers a standard one-ounce letter, and a postcard stamp is $0.65.
9. Check postmark and received-by dates. 53 of the 61 set a received-by date on top of the postmark deadline, so a card postmarked on the last day can still arrive too late. Our deadline calendar shows a mail-by date that allows 5 days in transit.
10. Get a hand cancel when it's close. USPS says the postmark applied at its processing plants won't necessarily match the day you dropped the mail off. Hand the envelope over at a retail counter and ask for a manual (local) postmark. It's free, and the date matches the day you mailed it.
11. Log what you sent. Note the giveaway, the date mailed, the entries per card and any bonus code. If you win, the administrator may check your entry against the rules.

What the card has to say

What gets mail-in entries thrown out

When we audit a giveaway's rules, we flag every line that could void an entry or cost a winner the prize. Across the 61 live mail-in giveaways there are 329 disqualifier flags, about 5.4 per giveaway. Here's what they're about, counting each giveaway once per topic.

None of these is hard to avoid once you know it's there. Every giveaway page on this site lists the flags we found under “What the rules say,” so read that section before you write a single card.

What one entry costs

The stamp is most of it. Here's our estimate per format, using current USPS prices plus bulk prices for cards and envelopes.

A SASE request costs double because you pay for the return envelope too. If you plan to send a stack of cards, our guide to mail-in entry supplies covers which cards, envelopes and pens the rules allow and where the savings are.

Why a free entry is often worth $20

A mail-in card earns a fixed number of entries, and buyers pay for those same entries at the base rate. For the 59 live mail-ins where the rules give both numbers, the median card is worth $20 at the base purchase rate. It costs you about $0.88.

Two things move that number. Bonus windows multiply what buyers get per dollar, so a plain card is worth less in dollar terms while a multiplier runs, unless the rules let mail-ins share the bonus. 18 live mail-ins have a rule like that. And bonus markings can push a card far higher: the most generous live mail-in is worth $10,000 at the base rate.

Whether any entry is worth sending comes down to the odds, which our guide to car giveaway odds works through.

Mail-ins closing soonest

The next free mail-in deadlines as of Oct 5, 2026, with the last sensible day to mail each card.

The full free giveaway deadline calendar groups every live mail-in by the last day to send it, and each listing has the exact card, address and rules.