Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

stampboards is coming up to its First Birthday on April 1.

On April 1 2007 we had just a dozen or so posts, and just 4 members other than myself, when we went "live".

We have grown from that VERY humble beginning, to be the largest Stamp Bulletin Board in the world. By April 1 2008, will have over 175,000 posts and hopefully over 1,750 members.

To celebrate this historic First Birthday, and the phenomenal success we have all shared in, it seemed a nice idea to offer a valuable Birthday prize to members.

Through the generosity of Australia Post, the winner of this little competition will get one of the highly sought after GOLD stamp FDC's, with a gold stamp depicting Pope Benedict XVI - specially issued in a wooden presentation box. ONLY 500 only exist worldwide - each is numbered.

These commemorate "World Youth Day 2008" in July, when Pope Benedict XVI and up to 500,000 people are expected to attend Mass at Randwick Racecourse Sydney.

These are about the hottest item on the world stamp scene right now. A near instant sellout at $129.95.

I will confirm shortly the serial number on the one we are giving away - which of course is NOT number one!

Also AP will shortly furnish a scan of the actual wooden box they are housed in, which I am told is very classy with a plaque on the lid.

Only 500 were created in Gold on numbered FDC's, and 5000 in Silver. (Some Silver FDC's of similar design are still available I understand at $29.95.)





World demand from Papal thematic collectors will be huge.

In fact I have a good Italian client who desperately wants a Gold one, so I will pay the winner $300 cash if they wish to sell.

So this generous prize is worth at least $300 cash.

Whether you sell or not, is entirely up to you of course, as their retail value may be even higher by April 1 - I have no idea whatever.

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As you can see from the graph above made by our stats guru RolyRJ, our posting growth has been remarkably consistent right since day #1.

As anyone knows who has every been connected with this phpbb board software, Admin has ZERO control over post numbers. They are real, and all genuine, and cannot be altered or changed by us at any time.

The graph looks like a quality one-day cricket score chase - the 'runs required' and target (red and blue lines) are close to converging right now, so we are on perfect track for around 250,000 posts by year end.

This underlines the ongoing worldwide appeal this board has, and is a HUGE tribute to all those members who contribute. My thanks again to you all for your support.

And guess what - we have many hundreds of members who seldom post. And for every member who has signed up, our Admin stats show there are 5 or 10 "Lurkers" who read, but have NOT yet signed up as members, and do not post things.

Thanks to all those who have joined our friendly little Community, and spent a bit of time posting and helping out others and sharing knowledge - and humour.

This Competition in a nutshell . . . . .

You just make a post below on this very thread.

As you can see .... the first post is 0000

Second post is 0001, and so on. Simple and easy. If you can 2 finger type you can do this one!

It will get to many 1000s of posts by April 1. Indeed when it gets to 9999 posts we will close it. So ever number from 0000 to 9999 will be covered.

This Phpbb software gets shaky and unstable after about 5000 posts, and often threads corrupt and implode, so at that point we will lock this thread, and start another from that number on.

So how is the winner determined? Quite simply - Wall Street will tell us!

We simply look at where the Wall Street Dow Jones Index finishes at end of trading Tuesday April 1. Therefore I can't be accused of rigging things! The last four (4) digits is what we look at.

i.e., if Wall Street closes at 13010.14 on that Tuesday afternoon - that last 4 digits or 10.14 makes the stampboard member who posted 1014 on the thread the WINNER!

The site we will use to verify the Wall Street final digit, as regards to accuracy (some newspapers or servers round number up or down to nearest decimal) is as it will be shown daily on - http://finance.yahoo.com/?u

So if Wall Street ends April 1 on 13100.01 - then the 2nd post (0001) on the thread wins. If Wall Street ends on 13005.14 then whomever first posts number 0514 is the WINNER. If it ends on 13015.76 then 1576 is the Winner and so on.

ANYONE can win ..... all Moderators included - except myself. It is a totally random number that Wall Street will reveal to us.

I'll join in the fun I am quite sure - HOWEVER should it transpire that one of my posts gets lucky, the post immediately AFTER mine shall be deemed the default winner.

And please post in ascending numerical order, following along from the posts before yours. i.e. if the thread is in the 300's do NOT post 1265 or 2063 etc. We will NEVER determine the winner that way, and such wildly divergent posts are deemed disqualified. If someone posts at same time, simply post again and do not edit - the FIRST post of 2 numbers to appear is the one to count.

A NOTE .. do NOT bother editing. If someone has already posted the number whilst you were typing DON'T bother editing it .. just post a further number down the list - or one someone has missed in recent posts.

The FIRST member to post any number will be the winner, so editing is a waste of time, as any edit code showing DISQUALIFIES your post.

So we have a few weeks for someone reading this to win a prize worth at least $300 CASH .. lets get the fun started!

Hey ...... make 20 or 50 or 100 posts and your Member Star level moves up with EVERY post you make - even within this one thread. And that of course gives you 20 or 50 or 100 different chances to win! EVERY post you make within this thread moves your member count up one.

Did you know we have THIRTY different colour star levels - based on your post count, and which are changed automatically by the software? All of them fully outlined here:

viewtopic.php?t=314&start=0

If you for instance only have 15 posts now - you will get an Aqua Star at 25 posts, a very neat Black Ninja Star at 50, and a classy RED star at 100 etc. You can readily achieve all those in a couple of weeks on just one thread, and maybe win something worth at least $300 cash whilst doing it.

You can make 10 posts in a row if you wish ... it increases your chances ..... so got for it! (From post 8458 - 10 posts an hour is Max we want to see from any member)

I hope to see a few 1000 posts here by April 1 .. so LET'S GO!

We have coerced Moderator fromdownunder to be chief cat wrangler, and keep an eye on those who post out of sequence.

In the remote event that everyone misses posting the number that comes up on Wall Street, or there is any other obscure dispute, the prize will be donated to St.Vincent de Paul for Auction via the good agencies of brian31stamps, who many members have supported in the past:

viewtopic.php?t=3401

The Judge's decision is final on any disputes .... and guess who the Judge is here.

Let the fun begin - "gentlemen .... start your engines".

Glen

And "p.s." for every post you make, UNTICK the 5th box down

Notify me when a reply is posted

Or for THIS thread you will get a lot of emails in your inbox. Just click on the un-subscribe link in any email if you forgot!

Glen