And The Winner Is?

I figured my little hint yesterday would spark one of the few people working on my code . . .

Someone believes they've solved it and that someone is none other than Nick Jacoby.

Check out his post over at Cardboard Overload.

Solution is not given away, but he has completed the final task.  Thank you to everyone that took a look, I really enjoy creating these and will likely take the next step and put out my own set of custom cards for my next one so that I can have complete creative control.  Consider it the Ginter Code tune-up for anyone who will attempt to break that code next summer.

I figure I'll need to make it harder to really challenge these Ginter champs.

Congrats Nick.

What to do ... what to do?

Sneak peak into my brain, maybe . . .

Tis the season!  Enjoy.

Oh and anyone who plugs/plugged this code endeavor, well consider yourself on my Christmas list.  I'll reach out to you if I don't have your address.

More Brewers Gold & Contest Update

Brew Crew Kockout!  Another fantastic card from the 2010 set, and it's in my hands.  I'd really really really really love the gold or black parallel of Prince's card #1 from the set.  Pleading with you readers out there ...

This card came as part of the aforementioned trade with Nachos Grande.  He's building quite the sweet set of 2010 Ginter relics, so see if you can help him out.

Code Challenge #2 is now a week old, and remains unbroken, although I can confirm some chips and cracks have been taken out of it.

Just remember, I have tried to take some common concepts and put them to use in my code.  Some that I learned from the Ginter Code challenges and some that I learned on my own.  Pattern recognition is key.  First Ginter Code had words that interlocked from card to card to set the order.  Second Ginter Code had a group of 9 cards in order 1-9 that paired with another group of 9 cards in order to give you your start.  Third Ginter Code gave you birthday hints throughout the set to figure out how to group the cards and start the de-transposing.  All great codes in their own way, all primarily based on transposition and finding which pieces of text to read.

What the heck is the checklist for?

Anyone know, other than me?

Some Gold & Code Contest Update

Bernie's Bash Brothers.  Love it.  I love both you guys equally, but not as much as I'd love having a rotation and bullpen .  .  . but also not as much as I love the trade I pulled off with Chris at Nachos Grande.  You can see the relics I sent his way from the 2010 A&G set.  If you've got some lying around that you'd like to deal for cards  you'd enjoy more, I'd encourage you to look at his want list.  Chris is one of the easiest guys out there to trade with and his list is always filled with potential trade fits.  Check it out.

I'd still love to trade for any other 2010 Brewers gold parallels.  Let me know if you've got something.

Now for a little code contest update.  Last time I put up a code contest, I had a lot better idea who was working on it, and what they had managed to figure out.  This time, I know nothing.  Which is fine.  Just know that I'll be using a sliding scale for determining the prize.  Maybe it will slide all the way up to that 1951 Topps Blue Back Johnny Mize card.  Anyone find any interesting things in the code yet?

The Game Is Afoot: Code Contest

Good morning ladies and gents!  I'm always astounded at the number of people who click through to look at the codes I've created.  I believe the first code challenge brought in somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 page views, although I suspect that 100+ were from the champion himself, Mike from JD's Wild Cardz.

Who will be the first to crack Code Challenge #2?  You?  You???  YOU????  I'm just curious to see how many people may or may not be working on it.  Like last time, if you are kind enough to pimp this little code breaking contest like Nachos Grande I'll be forever grateful and throw you into a drawing for the prize if it's not solved.  Just let me know you did so.

Good luck!

CODE CHALLENGE #2

SS92 CIPHER SOLUTION

If Dave Magadan's scrawny frame had you scratching your head this week, and you'd like to see how to solve the cipher I put together, head on over to check out the solution from the guy who broke through.

Mike from JDs Wild Cardz. You might also know him as half of the tag-team duo that broke the 2009 Ginter Code.

Congrats to Mike. I regretfully informed Mike that the David Price auto showed up damaged, and we're working together to find an equally fantastic prize as a replacement.

It's been fun guys. Thanks for playing!

THE CIPHER HAS BEEN BROKEN!

I'll hold off on posting any details here in case anyone else wants to try to finish it off.

I've asked the person who cracked it to post a solution post for it, and I'll link over to it when I see it's up.

Thanks to everyone for playing along and if you're interested in having me put together another one, just leave me a comment. I had fun building it, and have no idea how many had fun trying to solve it.

Anyone any closer to cracking this thing?

I don't think I recall much of Andy Van Slyke as a Cardinal. My memories of him start with the Pirates. I've also got a wood Van Slyke Louisville slugger bat that I still like to use on occassion.

I received a couple of trade packages this weekend, and I'll try to get those posted over the next couple of nights. As usual, people were generous. I opened a bubble mailer full of 1986 Sportflics on Saturday and was greeted immediately by Paul Molitor. No better way to start a Saturday afternoon.

In baseball related news, I see that Mark Rogers is scheduled to make a start for the Brewers in the coming weeks. Rogers was drafted 5th overall in the 2004 draft but his career has been hampered by injuries up until this point.

It's Been A Week . . .

You know, it was fun creating this code for people to puzzle over. Just going back through this checklist from that season, do you even remember half these guys? I have nooooo clue who Keith Atherton or Nick Esasky is. None at all. Guys like that, it's fun to try to remember who was playing back then. Decades ago. It was fun to page through my binder. I'll probably do it again.

On a side note, if you haven't seen the fun going on at JDs Wild Cardz, you should stop in!

Kent Tekulve

How many of Kent Tekulve's baseball cards shamelessly promote his tinted spectacles? All of them? 90%?

What I always liked about this card is that I was more drawn to his seemingly odd delivery rather than his tinted glasses.

Maybe his tinted glasses are the key to my code?

My favorite part this far of this entire endeavor is using some old cards from the mass production era for a new purpose.

Anyone out there a Tekulve collector? Someone must have a binder solely devoted to this guy, right?

Bo Jackson Is Dying . . .

To tell you the answer to my code:

?????????????????

I know, I know, that was low, but it got you here to look around, right?

He's also dying to tell you how you can enter my contest to win this David Price Sweet Beginnings Auto numbered 17/299 even if you don't want to be bothered with solving the code.




Progress has been made out there, I assure you, and I now have confirmation that 10+ people are working on it, and more have tried and said "I give".

Pimpin' a couple "new to me" blogs

I must admit, I figured my request for info on the 1986 Sportflics set was going to be a long conversation with myself, but it turned into meeting two new people out there collecting cards.

PROJECT1962

You've probably got a pretty decent idea of what's going on over there. But what I found to be the most cool in his site is his visual Trade Bait page. I might have to copy that idea. I see a Gorman Thomas over there I'd like to get my hands on.

Speaking of Gorman Thomas, anyone broken my code yet? Doesn't seem like it. I know one person has a lead, and plenty of people are stumped. And it's all in good clean fun.

Also, I'd like to mention AdamE at Thoughts & Sox who pointed me to the Sportflics checklist for 1986 and pointed me toward some boxes to purchase.

All in all, it's been a good day. Thanks guys for your help, and Chris over at P1962 is sending some quintuplets of Ernie Riles 1986 Sportflics my way, ha, too cool!

Until tomorrow morning when Bo Jackson will ask the question, can anyone out there solve it?

No One Has Broken The Cipher

That's right, we're at Day 5 and still no one has a clue what's going on here:

?

I've got to imagine all the smaht kids that were working on the Ginter Code should be ripe for a chance at redemption. And even if you aren't the code breaking type, like I said, you can still enter the contest to win the free on-card Dave Price auto and maybe bring some more worthy code breakers into the fold. I imagine he'll be pitching in the post-season before we see a full reveal on this thing :)

For the record. I love Gorman Thomas. I think that was his last card.

Day 4: The Cipher Is Still Unsolved

Leon Durham commands you to try solving this cipher:

?

No really, he does. I posted this before the long holiday weekend and we're still no closer to having a winner of the David Price Sweet Beginning auto, plus all the bragging rights that come along with cracking this thing.

Sure, you don't get your own card like in the Ginter Code contest, but here are a couple reasons to try this one:

1. I actually gave you the code
2. It might actually last longer than the Ginter Code if no one tries it, so get on it


That is all.

Oh, on a baseball-y note, how many of your favorite teams do a "Legends Game" or what they used to call "Old Timers Game". Twins had one yesterday and it was ridiculously well received by the Minnesota faithful. Just curious if other teams are still doing this each year. I know the fans here are already calling for it to happen again next year.

Can You Solve It?

That's right, I've got no shame. I'm back to self promote. But before I do, I wanted to promote someone else first:

Way Off Base is a blog I hadn't come across before running my contest. Always great to come across new people with like interests, even if they are Cardinals fans.

So again, I'll ask Can You Solve It?. All those questions marks in the right nav bar link you straight in as well.

Even if you can't I'd be forever grateful for the free press, plus Way Off Base needs a little more competition since they've already declared they'll be the ones winning and solving the puzzle.

Even if you don't want to attempt to solve it, you can always enter to win the prize should no one else succeed. See the contest post for details. Good luck!

Contest Time: Two Ways To Win

As I've been saying today, there's this thing:

??????????

Don't want to take the time to solve it, but still want a shot at the David Price Sweet Beginnings auto? I'll make you a deal.

You shamelessly promote this contest with a short entry on your blog, click the little follow button on my blog, and leave me a comment in this thread so I know you have and you'll be entered to win the Price auto if no one solves the code/puzzle. Deal? It's win-win.

Let's say if no one has solved it by the time we crown a World Series champ, I'll draw for a winner of the card, and upgrade the prize for anyone who can solve it.

Or you could just solve it right now and declare yourself the winner. Your choice!

Prize #1 For The ?

How about this, we start the ante with a 017/299 David Price on-card Sweet Beginnings. You solve the ? down below, and it's yours. I started by issuing this as a challenge to the three Ginter Code Champions. Mr. Wong, Mr. Jacoby, and Mr. Gellner.

This is probably as much exposition you'll get from me on it for now, but this idea started after I felt sad about this year's Ginter Code and really not having a shot to break it. Having to wait another year for a new interesting puzzle to solve seemed much too long of a wait. So I created this monster instead. For now, since I have no clue how hard this is to solve, I'll just offer the Price card as loot for winning. If it strings out longer than it took people to finish off the Ginter Code this year, I'll potentially start adding more interesting things to the mix.

Good luck if you decide to work on it. Thanks for reading.

?

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6	14	14	3	13	2	14	13	14	6
1	17	5	6	16	9	17	3	16	15
14	18	10	13	8	5	17	16	1	17
18	18	9	13	16	12	3	11	1	10
14	3	5	5	1	7	10	4	5	6
2	2	11	6	13	15	12	16	6	16
9	17	12	13	16	16	17	16	3	8
16	17	12	13	11	15	10	18	14	6
11	18	18	13	18	4	11	12	13	11
9	3	2	1	11	16	17	9	13	14