I don't know how it is with other states, but it seems that here in MI, most regular players know that the first week is usually the best time to buy tickets. (I see this when talking to the retailers and the places I frequent tell me that they've had a lot of people asking about new ticket X or Y and the retailer is still waiting for their shipment.)
I've also found, as an aside, that they seem to come out in batches. The first week is the best time for winners, then it falls off, winners-wise, for about 8 to 12 months, then a new batch of winners will start coming out. I don't know how many others states do this, but I watch the Michigan Lottery's website because it lists all the tickets in the field and exactly how many winners are left unclaimed.
All that being said, I had an amazing morning today, and wish I would have gotten more pictures. I normally don't play anything under $10, but there is one $5 ticket I play from time to time. Last night, I bought one of those and won $10. (According to my notes, I was $23 under breaking even this year so far.) So I decided to add an extra $20 out of pocket on the $30 "$100,000,000 Diamonds" game (see above: it's been released for a while and I noticed retailers are getting them back in stock after being out for a while and there are still a lot of winners left) and that was a $100 winner! So I bought a new ticket, the $10 "Superstar Cash", and it was a $50 winner! I decided to do one last one, since I was ahead: I bought one of the new $30 "Max Money" tickets - $200 winner!
So, off of my $25 dollar investment (the $5 last night and the $20 today), I walked out with over $300 dollars in my pocket. The clerk joked to go easy because he had just opened up this morning and I was cleaning out his till! 
I only wish I had taken more pictures!
