(Feb 20 winner announcement below!) MargoZ wrote:
RolyRJ wrote:
Monty Friday Feb 20, 2009 9:57:56 with
52246 if the time qualifys.
viewtopic.php?f=0&t=10705&p=450106&hilit=52246#p450106otherwise
Lakatoi 4 Tuesday Feb 10, 2009 1:56:00 with
52270 time does qualify.
viewtopic.php?f=0&t=10705&p=437875&hilit=52270#p437875 Thanks to Roly for this- I have double checked and by my mathematics,
Monty is indeed our winner (9 numbers off to Lakatoi's 15). All entries were valid up to my 'Cut-off' post so well and truly posted prior to that.
Any other input? Otherwise we will declare
Monty the winner tomorrow.

monty .. congrats .... well done with your guesses, and Moderators
Roly and
Margo have both double checked the guesses, and you squeezed in ahead of
Lakatoi4!
Please contact me with your mailing addresse .. they are all yours!
Glen
====================
Since we are rapidly closing in on
500,000 posts (that's a
half of million folks), I thought a fitting way to help approach such a
HUGE milestone for
http://www.stampboards.com would be to have a competition with a pretty
AMAZING prize.
Following on from
Lakatoi4's similar promo from a year back, where members were asked to guess how many
on paper stamps
MargoZ was counting in the pile below, we came up with an even HARDER one for 2009!

I bought a carton from an estate recently that was full of OFF-PAPER world stamps. I've never seen so many stamps in one carton before. These were just all not common bundle-ware. They were apparently a lifetime collection of some sort, not yet sorted into albums basically. I saw many Kangaroos and KGV heads, and Aust.States material - for instance on a quick look.
So rather then list them up for sale here at a few $100 and induce a feeding frenzy among members, I'd thought I'd kick off 2009 with a giveaway from me, as a personal "thank you" to all our members for their ongoing support of stampboards.
BELOW ARE MANY PHOTOS OF THE ACTUAL PRIZE YOU WILL WIN! Every stamp collector's dream ... a BED full of stamps! (Many more photos below) 
He had stamps in here from the 19th Century, right up to a few years back it seems.
These are
NOT just all common letter rate stamps. Looking though it I saw all kinds of better stamps in there - from all over the place. From Queen Victoria issues onwards.
The number of stamps here will be massive ....
to WIN you need to guess closer than anyone else, HOW many there are here! And OK it will
NOT be anything remotely like a "million" stamps - that much is very obvious and is a term of speech - but boy there really are a
LOT of stamps here!
Remember the ON-PAPER from the April 2008 competition was approx 70% paper and 30% stamp in volume.
These are all OFF paper. Where the number of stamps even in 100 grams is HEAPS, and there are kilos of weight here. One hint - there are
MANY, MANY times more stamps in here than the
last promo.
We spread the carton out on a Queen sized bed as you can see, and even then they are
MANY stamps deep in places .. often an inch or so deep.
Firstly the rules (and they are pretty thorough so please read them all) : 1. The VERY many 1000s of stamps in the photos below have been carefully counted by moderator
MargoZ. The exact number of stamps counted has been emailed to senior member
GJ50 (President of the Australian Philatelic Federation) who has agreed to a strict vow of secrecy until the competition closes.
2. For obvious reasons we cannot tell you the
WEIGHT of this lot - although clearly, it is several kilos - a wine carton full. One hint - there are
MANY, MANY times more stamps in here than the last promo.
3. At
9pm, Friday, February 20th AEDST (Sydney time) the competition will be deemed closed. Any number posted on the competition thread after that point will be void. All members are eligible to post.
4. As soon as practical after that time,
GJ50 will post the winning number of stamps in the competition thread (this may not be immediate though, depending on the time of day or night the actual post is made - so please be patient.) Or if
Margoz or
Glen Stephens are up and about, they'll post the number, and ask
GJ50 to verify it later on.
5. Neither
MargoZ,
GJ50, nor
Glen Stephens will be eligible to enter the competition.
6. The winner of this competition will be the first to post the exact number of stamps shown in the photos here.
7. Should there be more than one exact number posted, the earliest post with the exact number will win.
8. If the exact number is not posted, then the closest number either above or below the exact number will win.
9. In the event that there is a tie with rule 8, then rule 7 will be used to decide a winner. i.e. if the actual number of stamps is 32675 and member "A" guesses 32671 on Feb 3, and Member "B" guess 32679 on Feb 9 ... despite them bot being only 4 numbers off, Member "A" wins - being first to post from the 2 members.
10. Members may have as
MANY guesses as they wish. You can post 50 guesses in a row of 50 posts if you wish. You can post commentary as well in your post, as long as there is a guess number in there somewhere!
11. Members do not need to post in any order. i.e. one member can guess at 10021, and the next member can guess at 19205 and the next member at 14368. That is fine ... the powerful search function on
http://www.stampboards.com will
AFTER the close time, determine who got the exact number, or the closest number to it. If you really think there are about 40,000 stamps here for instance, you can cover a lot of numbers either side if you wish, via many separate posts.
12. However only
ONE number guess per post. If you want to pick 25 numbers you need to make 25 posts etc, so our winner checking will be quick and easy.
NO edits are permitted - if you make an error, make a new post - any post showing an edit code is Disqualified.
Do NOT use commas or spaces on ANY GUESS so that checking the winner will be easy via the search facility.
If your guess is 25,037 or 25 037 you MUST enter it as 25027 - OK?13. The prize is
all the stamps you see in these photos below. I'll mail these Registered, post free anywhere in Australia. If an overseas winner prevails, we split the shipping cost - OK, as this box is rather heavy.
14. This competition is meant to be
FUN, and a test of your stamp guessing skills. All current members may enter, and you can make as many posts as you wish. One competition last year saw a "clever" young USA member set up a automated "posting bot" which was of course cheating, and not in the spirit of the game - or this board. His number actually won, but as he was suspended once Admin had determined this cheating, the next closest member's guess was the winner. The old adage
"Cheats Never Prosper" was proven most prophetic in this case.

15. The judge's (i.e.
Glen Stephens) decision is absolutely final.
So what are you waiting for folks, start posting the total number of stamps you think are in this pile, right here on this thread, right now






So what are you waiting for folks, start posting the total number of stamps you think are in this pile, right here on this thread, right now
And Remember rule 9 above .. the FIRST person to post will win if we get 2 tied numbers. So post early, and post often.
If your stamp friends have NOT yet joined the members we have from over 75 countries .. email them this link and suggest they join up NOW - and they may win a bed full of stamps! http://tinyurl.com/baayy3