McDonald's Monopoly: Strategize and Conquer!

This year, McDonald’s famous Monopoly game runs from October 5th to November 1st: Which means it’s already more than half over! Whether you’re playing already or haven’t even thought twice about going to your nearest Mickey D’s, we have some information for you, our readers, that might give you the upper hand in getting a hold of some free moolah.

As everyone already knows, you win prizes (mostly cash) by collecting all two or three pieces of the same color. The trick is that in each color, there is one piece that is harder to find than the others. If you find the rare piece, you’ve basically all but won that color’s prize. Below is a list of this year’s rare pieces and their corresponding prizes.

Mediterranean Avenue ($50 prize, 5000 prizes)
Vermont Avenue ($100 prize, 1500 prizes)
Virginia Avenue ($200 SpaWish® Gift Certificate, 250 prizes)
Tennessee Avenue ($1,000 prize, 250 prizes)
Kentucky Avenue (Beaches Resorts – The Luxury Included® 4 Day/3 Night Family Vacation for two adults & two children 15 years or under, 122 prizes)
Short Line Railroad (EA SPORTS Trip, 8 prizes)
Ventnor Avenue ($25,000 prize, 5 prizes)
Pennsylvania Avenue ($50,000 prize, 4 prizes)
Boardwalk ($1 million dollar prize, 2 prizes)

You can come across these pieces on any of these McDonald’s products: Medium Fountain Drinks; Medium and Large McCafés; Medium and Large Cold Smoothies and Frappés (excludes McCafé Shakes); Hash Browns; Big Mac; 10-piece Chicken McNuggets®, McGriddles, and Filet-O-Fish. If you decide to buy a 20-piece Chicken McNuggets or specially-marked Large Fries, you’ll receive double the normal amount of game pieces.

So what’s the next step? Well, if you want to save money on your venture, then you should invest in a lot of hash browns, because they are the cheapest item that contains pieces. But then again, no one wants to eat a stuffload of hash browns. If time isn’t a factor for you, then you can get almost free (you have to pay for postage) game pieces by sending a “legibly handwritten, self-addressed, stamped envelope with your address (first and last name, street address, city, state, and zip or postal code) to:

2010 MONOPOLY Game at McDonald’s Game Piece Request

P.O. Box 49229

Strongsville, OH 44149-0229

Then again, if you know other people who are playing the game, then you can always work out some trades. If you have one of the rare pieces, then you’re holding all the cards. Negotiate your way to the top.

As always there are also instant win prizes, too. So if you can’t get your hands on a rare piece, then at least try for one or more of these prizes:

Food Prizes – Medium French Fries, any Large Beef Sandwich, any Breakfast Extra Value Meal®, Small McFlurry® or Fruit ‘N Yogurt Parfait, Small Soft Drink or Small Hot Premium Roast Coffee (excluding McCafe®), and any Breakfast Sandwich.
Three (3)-Month Pogo.com™ Subscription
EA SPORTS™ video game
Twenty Snapfish® Photo Prints – With 4,000,000 of these prizes, this prize is the second most common prize.
Wal-Mart Gift Card – Several prizes are Wal-Mart gift cards ranging in value from $5 (966k winners) to $5,000 (10 winners).
Free RedBox Rental – There are 1,350,000 of these and this is the third most common instant win prize, with your chances at 1 in 405.
Fifty Dollars – There are 4,000 of these prizes available, you get a check for $50.
Five hundred Dollars – There are 500 of these prizes available, you get a check for $500.
EA SPORTS Ultimate Game Room
Xbox 360 Game System – There are 3,000 of these prizes available, but you will only get these off an order of large fries or Angus burger.
$10,000 Dollars – Four $10,000 prizes available.
$25,000 Dollars – Four $25,000 prizes available.
2011 Shelby GT500 – Last but not least, there are two cars.