**First things first... I recently had a generous fellow blogger contact me to ask if I had received a PWE he had sent me. Unfortunately, I did not, the cards were sent to my old address and were not forwarded. So if you want to send me anything, please reach out for the new address.
On to why you are here.
The winner of the serial numbered cards is...
With a guess of 68000 flat...
Ginko-5!!!!!
The actual correct total of the serial numbers was 69046....
I was personally pleased that the winning guess came from a second guess that Ginko received for pimping the contest. Thanks!!
I will be filling out the box that I am sending the cards in with a few extra cards to make it fit tightly. Nothing too special, don't get excited. The box that I will be using to ship the cards was originally sent to me by none other than Night Owl some years back when he was sending extra Dodgers cards out to people. It would have been slightly poetic if Night Owl had won, so I could return the box....but alas, he didn't guess.
Observations on the guesses...
Gregory was the closest to go over with a guess of 72395
Johnny had 2 guesses from pimping. One was the highest guess (131003) and the other was the 3rd lowest (38964)
The average guess was 57298, about 12000 below the actual number. Which is about what I would expect when I add the "without going over" rule. People gotta guess low to be safe.
The lowest guess, by John Sharp was 11111. Since I noted in the original post that the highest serial number in the cards was /9000, if John was correct, that would have made the other 99 cards in the lot average a serial number /21. That would have been some prize!!
I discovered a new blog from the comments, Tanner Bibee's Lumber Co. He is just starting, but I love finding new blogs!
The first guess, by The Angels in Order, was 44,444, which he called 'weird'. What was really weird is Matt from Cards over Coffee commenting not once, but twice, on the last day of the contest, guessed the exact same number, 44,444!
Thanks to everyone who participated, and Ginko, if you don't mind shooting me your current address, it has been a while since I sent anything your way and would hate to send it to the wrong place!