We have a winner!

After the last contest I ran, in which I had to go through a painstaking process to determine the eventual winner, I'm relieved to announce a clear-cut champion of this contest.

The winner receives all of the contents (excluding the gum) of the 14 retail packs that I purchased for the sake of counting down 2008. That's 120 cards. The winner made the most correct guesses as to the card I pulled first out of each pack.

Here are the first cards that I pulled from each one:

Bowman Chrome: Gil Meche
Topps Chrome: Jacoby Ellsbury
Topps Heritage: Mariano Rivera
Topps Series I: Josh Beckett, World Series
Topps Stadium Club: Gary Sheffield
Topps Updates & Highlights: Randy Wolf
Upper Deck Artifacts: Josh Anderson
UD Baseball Heroes: Adam Dunn
UD Series 2 (Fat Pack): Brian McCann, Diamond Collection
UD Goudey: Dustin Pedroia
UD Masterpieces: Jon Papelbon
UD SP Authentic: Manny Ramirez
UD Timeline: Carlos Beltran
UD X: Chipper Jones

Out of 14 packs, SamDaMan picked the most, selecting six of those correctly. He named Gil Meche, Jacoby Ellsbury, Gary Sheffield, Randy Wolf, Adam Dunn and Chipper Jones.

Dan of Saints of the Cheap Seats, who is holding his own contest, finished just one card off, selecting five correctly: Meche, Ellsbury, Sheffield, Josh Anderson and Carlos Beltran

So either Randy Wolf or Chipper Jones was the difference maker between the top two contenders. (That's why I have the Wolf card at the top of the post. Plus, Wolf could be a Dodger again, and I've already featured Chipper a few times recently).

Several people selected three correctly. I think there was only one person who didn't pick any right. Apparently Meche and Ellsbury were the first ones in a lot of packs because a lot of people selected those two. (In case you're interested in the tiebreaker answers, the first pack I bought was Updates & Highlights and the last was SP Authentic).

So, congratulations to SamDaMan! Please email me your address, and let me know what kind of cards you collect (who, what team/what sets) as I'll send you something else with your winnings.

Thanks for playing. I know it's a busy time of year for everyone. Thanks for taking the time out to enter.