I suppose it has officially become an annual event. Two years ago, I gave away over a thousand ’93-94 Topps Hockey Gold parallels using some simple jersey-trivia math. Last year, I gave away about 1,000 racing cards through a series of fastest-finger trivia challenges. This year, I will keep the “grand” tradition alive by giving away about $1,000 worth of cards from my For Sale / Trade lists.
The theme of this year’s giveaway is “Choose Your Own Adventure” – celebrating the 30th anniversary of my first (and only) National Sport Card Convention experience in Chicago, in July of 1993.
First, I’ll explain how the Giveaway will work:
I will craft a short story based on my experiences at the 14th National. Each day I’ll present a new scenario in which you must choose one of two options. The “right” choice will allow you to continue with the adventure, but the “wrong” choice will end your story. There will be a brief recap at the end of the day detailing what happened with each choice. The plan is to have this story unfold over the course of a week, which ought to be long enough to mathematically whittle the number of entrants down to one, or perhaps a few ultimate survivors.
The story will be based on real decisions I faced, but to be fair & unbiased the “right” choices will be determined randomly as I write. In most cases, I did both, so while there may not be an incorrect choice, one will be considered “wrong”. Also, if you happen to miss a day’s choice, you will end up in the “wrong” group for that day, ending your adventure.
This giveaway won’t require any trivial knowledge or internet search speed, just luck.
Now, let’s get to the good part, the PRIZES:
As mentioned above, the giveaway is for about $1,000 worth of cards from my For Sale / Trade lists. I have created 18 prize packages of varying amounts (ten $5, five $10, two $25 & one $50) in five different sport categories. All the Baseball prizes (and the Hockey $50 prize) will be “choose your own” – as you will get to pick from any baseball (or hockey) cards on my main For Sale / Trade lists. All entrants are guaranteed to get at least one $5 prize. Those who survive longer will get to choose from the bigger prizes or perhaps claim several smaller ones.
A few notes on some prizes: The $5 Football ’91 NFL uncut sheet lot consists of 8 ten-card sheets of 1991 Wild Card NFL, so you’ll have half of the sheet set containing those 80 cards noted on the list. The $5 vintage NFL lot cards have heavy wear and/or creasing - they’re old & beat up. The $5 Hockey ’86-87 OPC Devils blank back lot is just that, blank back versions with full color fronts. The $5 Racing 8x10 lot includes the listed A.P. cards, plus two 8x10 photos – one is of a formal Winston event & the other is a candid garage row photo – both picture Alan Kulwicki, along with other drivers like Mark Martin.
Each person who enters the giveaway will start with a $10 share of the prize pool. As the adventure unfolds, if you make a “wrong” choice you’ll lose half of your stake, and that amount will go back into the prize pool. However, if you make the “right” choice, your stake will grow by adding an equal portion of that lost amount.
For example, if there is an initial group of 50 (each starting with a $10 share) and twenty participants chose wrong, those 20 will end their adventure with $5 each, but the 30 survivors will split that lost $100 (20 x $5) equally, increasing their shares to $13.33 each ($10 + $100/30). Then, if the next day has fifteen of the remaining thirty choosing wrong, they will keep half ($6.67 each) with another $100 (15 x $6.67) lost to the pool, and the fifteen survivors get a boost up to $20 each ($13.33 + $100/15). Final values will be rounded to the nearest prize level. Some bigger prizes might be split if more people than expected end up with only a $5 share.
My previous giveaways had only 31 & 15 participants, but their prize categories (Hockey & Racing) may not have appealed to everyone. This time all major sports are available as prizes, so the cap will be set at 100 participants, if necessary.
For those who want to go on the adventure, please enter this weekend – BEFORE Monday, July 17th – by replying to this post (or by personal message) and please “choose” your preferred prize category: Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey or Other.
Basketball, Football, Hockey, and Other Sports each have 18 prize packages, so sign-ups for those categories will be considered “full” if that number is reached. Anyone who has no preference, or misses out on another category, will be placed into the Baseball prize category which has no limit. You can preview the full list of available prize packages on my profile’s Collection page.
The adventure will begin with the first chapter of the story posting on MONDAY at around 6:00 AM PST & you’ll have until 9:00 PM PST (midnight EST) that same day to choose your path, i.e., the page number. Each day afterwards, the next “Giveaway” link will be added onto the second message of this forum thread, so check there each morning.
The consequences of the choices & updates on the prize pool standings will be added to the end of the forum thread as a reply. There will be a maximum of five chapters so if there is more than one survivor after Friday’s final choice all those who remain will get to keep their full accumulated share.
Good luck to all & thanks for reading along!
