Off-Topic Forum

Congrats to the winners and a big thank you to SaintOrm's for his great story-telling and rekindling my memories of the choose your own adventure fun.

Thanks for the fun and the interesting story line. Even though I was out of the running I kept on playing just for the fun of it. I ended up tied for 6th in the Hockey or next to last, depending on how you wanted to look at it. Thanks!

D'oh, I fumbled right at the goal line. 

I hope you all enjoyed the adventure.

   Page numbers were not meant to be clues, but I did choose numbers that related to the subject matter: 2 because, well there had to be a second page, Manon's jersey #33, 5 for the lowly 5-stripe, 92 for 1992 Topps, franchise Stanley Cup wins (6 & 24), footlong & pi, a Chicago area code & 87 for the 1987 movie "The Untouchables".

   Some other numbers to crunch: 80 "right" choices vs. 86 "wrong" choices overall, surprisingly close considering the first day was close to 2:1 in favor of wrong.  Three of 54 members survived the 1 in 32 odds of picking 5 in a row.

   Now, as for prize selection, I will go in the following category order (smallest to largest):

Other -> Football -> Basketball -> Hockey -> Baseball

   Within each category I will go top to bottom and ties are already ranked by order of signup.  Once all those in a chosen category have made their choices, any remaining prizes will be made available to everyone else.  Hockey is a bit "oversold" due to the overall picking success, so anyone in Hockey can do a combination of prizes & CYO cards from my Hockey FS/T lists.

   As for the actual prize pool shares:

21.56 can claim 25 in combinations of 5s & 10s (but not a 25)

26.47 (and 26) can claim 30 in combinations of 5, 10 or 25

42.35 can claim up to 45 in combinations of 5, 10 or 25

112.92 can claim up to 115 from any prize level

   This may take a while to get all sorted out, but I'll do my best to keep it moving along.  I have a compressed work week (Sun-Wed, 4x10h), so I will be doing most of my messaging in the evenings & nights on those days.

  In the meantime, check out the prize packages on my Profile's Collections list & search for wants/matches on my Baseball or Hockey FS/T lists.  I will set these up as TCDb transactions to keep it organized.  Thanks for your patronage & your patience.

This was fun, even though I lost on the first day and only responded the first 3 days. I had fun doing it, wish I would have remembered everyday

It was fun to particpate, despite being out after one day. I didn't exactly know what to expect, but am glad I played along. You did a fantastic job setting the event up and provided some fantastic choices to pick between. Thank you for sharing your adventure with us and allowing us to play along.

So we will get a message from you when it's our turn to choose?

To answer fritz63's question (and that of others) - yes, I am working my way down the lists in each sport category based on the prize standings seen on my last update post above.  I am trying to take care of the four smaller categories first, since those have the preselected prize lots.  When they're done, I'll work my way down the list of the Baseball group's members & we will figure out which cards from my Main Collection's FS/T you'll get.

This will take some time, working out 50+ deals.  Hopefully, most will get done by the end of this week.  Thanks.

I most enjoyed your creative writing for the stories. I was out the first day along with all those others.

I wonder how many chose based on how they personally would approach literally scalpers. I will not support them in any kind of way. Nor will I pay for an autograph. The autographs I do have were all gained from meeting the individuals in person either at Spring Training or at the ball park (Greg Zaun when he was a commentator between innings for the Jays).

This is my personal choice of approach concerning this subject and I respect those who choose to be different.

That's what I did too, Bruno. Chose what I would have done. I like that the thought process is the same every time though..."should I spend now or see what awaits!!??" I think if it was me a few years ago when I was single and had "all the time in the world" I would buy slow. Now I would say, "if I want it, I want it" and get in and get out once the money was gone...