The 2009 Topps Ginter Code – Cracked!
Mike Gellner from JDs Wild Cardz and Nick Jacoby from Cardboard Overload have officially solved the 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Crack the Code Contest. There were a lot of puzzles involved, but the dynamic duo conquered the riddle in less then 72 hours.
Here is an excerpt of Mike and Nick's blog in which they documented their winning efforts, starting with the actual code.
TOWINEMAILAPHOTOOFYOUHOLDINGTHEODDMANOUTCARDWITHBIGTHUMBSUP
WELLDONECODEBREAKER
Or...
To win email a photo of you holding the odd man out card with big thumbs up. Well done codebreaker!
There you have it!
Mike: So there you have it. Just a wild 72 hour ride from start to finish to solve this year's Ginter code. I have seen some posting chastising Topps, who had promised to make this years code tougher than last year. This solution should demostrate that the code was indeed very challenging with several layers of puzzles. Some day I would like to have a beer with the guy who wrote it, because it really is pretty brilliant!
Both Nick and I were excited to share the news, but were met with a lot of skepticism (rightly so, since Topps auto-reply did not immediately change to say that the code had been solved). We were left to sit on our hands and wait it out for the rest of the work week until Topps finally confirmed that the code has officially been cracked. Then of course all hell broke loose and we have dedicated most of the weekend to preparing the solution for everybody to see. First, I hope it makes sense! Secondly, I just wanted to say thanks to all of those who wrote to congratulate us on our achievement. I never started this puzzle fully believing that we would ACTUALLY WIN, but our teamwork was just flawless, and I guess sometimes good things just happen! Thanks everybody!
Nick: What a weekend it was trying to solve the code. I actually called my hobby shop when I got the confirmation email from Topps and I swear he almost hung up on me because he thought I was full of crap! I've talked to several different collectors across the country who have asked me for hints, or to see if they were on the right track, and I've seen some funny stuff. One guy swore to me that the playing cards on the left side of the box were part of the code and represented certain players in the set (may be true, who knows!). A poster on Freedom Cardboard's forum (schmidtfan20) sent me a private message saying he got stuck after "Unravel it". He was sooo close to being on the right track!
I haven't heard from Topps yet, other than to tell me that I was the first and only person to solve it so far, and that someone would contact me regarding the code and the prize. I'm hoping they will let us make our way on to a card for next year's set (even though they aren't advertising that as a prize), and give both me and Mike a set of the autographs!
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