So you want to create public GAs, but you don't want bots and auto-join scripts to enter? Good. Just post a comment in this thread with a link to an invite-only giveaway. The idea is very simple and is really not different from many (most?) of the other threads in the forum, except that you don't need to invest much time or thought into it. Just post the link in a comment, and you're done :-)

A few additional guidelines:

  • Feel free to obfuscate the link to make it more difficult for bots/scripts to enter. This is completely optional and may not make much of a difference, because the forums are probably not as infested with bots and auto-join scripts as public giveaways (see example).
  • You may use itstoohard.com, sgtools.info or other sites as filters to the link, but do try to keep things easy (for humans) to enter.
  • Don't feel obligated to write anything to accompany the giveaway link. If you have stuff to share beyond just the link, you probably should create a dedicated thread for it. Needless to say, you can also write it here, but it's not required.
  • Cross-posting giveaways your posted in other threads is fine, as long as they are your giveaways.
  • If you want to add a dynamic signature showing the game name, giveaway end date and current number of entries, but without revealing the URL to bots, you can use this tool created by Reforced. It takes the signature created by SG and provides you with a new URL that hides the original giveaway address. Just add it to your comment using the regular format for posting images: ![](URL)
  • Just like public GAs typically have a lot of entries, there's no need to maintain a low number of entries in GAs posted here. If you want to give especially good odds to people who enter and still get CV, you may want to instead consider posting the link here (and then remove it when you have your 5 entries). This is not needed here in this thread. The more (humans) the merrier :-)
  • The best way to bump this thread is by posting a link to your own invite-only giveaway. With that said, if the thread drops from the first page a regular "Bump" would also be appreciated.

I'm trying to find how serious the issue with bots really is. So far the results don't really prove things one way or another. Here are some stats from my latest experiment:

Game: Space Trader: Merchant Marine
Number of giveaways: 5
Period: 3 days

Giveaway # Level Type Number of entries Winner's Sent:Won Reroll needed?
1 Level 0+ Public 891 0:82 No
2 Level 0+ Invite only, direct link 55 4:47 No
3 Level 0+ Invite only, SGTools (no restrictions) 48 6:71 No
4 Level 0+ Invite only, shortened URL, captcha-free 50 1:205 No
5 Level 0+ Invite only, shortened URL with "I'm not a robot" captcha 54 162:86 No

Yet some more stats:

Giveaway game Period Level Type Number of entries Winner's Sent:Won Reroll needed?
Tales from the Void 5 days Level 0+ Public 755 0:37 No
Tales from the Void 5 days Level 0+ Invite only, obfuscated link 183 42:514 No
Hyper Box 4 days Level 0+ Public 554 0:32 No
Hyper Box 4 days Level 0+ Invite only, obfuscated link 193 178:188 No
Ace Combat Assault Horizon 3 days Level 0+ Public 1596 0:28 Yes
Ace Combat Assault Horizon 3 days Level 0+ Invite only, obfuscated link 234 88:107 No
7 years ago*

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6 months ago
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I already have the game so have a bump!

6 months ago
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Same as Raggart. BUMP!

6 months ago
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Thanks & bump!

6 months ago
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bump !

6 months ago
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Excellent game, have a bump!

6 months ago
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bump!

6 months ago
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Bump

6 months ago
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want to make 2 extra GA from the already have so leave here https://www.sgtools.info/giveaways/6760f9e1-986f-4654-b0f3-0712b4905cbe

6 months ago
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Bump and thanks!

6 months ago
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Bump 🥰

6 months ago
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6 months ago
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The Entropy Centre (EU region only)
level 4, 2 days

https://www.sgtools.info/giveaways/1ffb*c*a-*e47-479d-8f6b-5cbaa8ae9120
*=a trinity of threes

6 months ago*
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Darn. No US. Still, thanks for posting!

6 months ago
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I should have mentioned in description, sorry.

6 months ago
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Terraformers (EU Region locked)
level 4, 1 day
https://www.sgtools.info/giveaways/40b0213b-04f5-45cd-a012-603c210b9a52

6 months ago
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Thanks 🌺

6 months ago
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Bump!

6 months ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 6 months ago.

6 months ago
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6 months ago
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bump!

6 months ago
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Bump! Took me a bit to understand what sq. m meant haha.

6 months ago
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Thank you! :)

6 months ago
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Thanks!

6 months ago
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Bump for the spiky classic!

6 months ago
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5h+ left bump!

5 months ago
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Biped (level 4): https://www.sgtools.info/giveaways/a0c40b1b-b4e9-4a8e-aa48-bc10e588a545

Less than 2 hours left.

EDIT: ended

5 months ago*
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Bump

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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5 months ago*
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Another nice mini(?)-train! 😁

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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bump~

5 months ago
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Bumpin'

5 months ago
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Bump! :D

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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train bump

5 months ago
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Thank you! :)

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bumpi

5 months ago
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Choo choo bump

5 months ago
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Quite the eclectic & interesting selection of giveaways, esp the "old school" ones, cheers for the opportunity and bump!

5 months ago
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Last chance bump. Train ends in 2 hours!

5 months ago
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bump ;)

5 months ago
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bump!

5 months ago
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bump.

5 months ago
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Nice and cozy game bump!

5 months ago
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Unruly Heroes Lvl 4 & Sgt

Enter

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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Munchkin Digital!

Drop in here!

Puzzle giveaway inside!

5 months ago
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Happy Cakeday! And thank you :D

5 months ago
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Happy Cakeday, Aerctaure :)

5 months ago
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Cheers!

5 months ago
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happy cakeday!

5 months ago
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Thanks for dropping by, my dear guest!

5 months ago
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happy cakeday Aerctaure!

5 months ago
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Thank you!

5 months ago
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Happy cake day! :)

5 months ago
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Happy cake!

5 months ago
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Happy cakeday!

5 months ago
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Thank you very much. Best of luck with the puzzles. There is at least one hidden link somewhere.

5 months ago
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Happy cakeday ! Nice train you made :)

5 months ago
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That was quite the fun little voyage, cheers for the giveaways and belated congrats on the cake day, bump!

5 months ago
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Some of the best train rides would lead you to unexpected places!

View attached image.
5 months ago
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1-day-remaining bump, and happy belated cakeday!

I've passed the SGTools check and inspected everywhere I can think of and couldn't find the puzzle. Would love to know where it's hidden once the GAs are over, if you feel like sharing the secret!

5 months ago
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Until all of the giveaways end, you are on you own with this.

5 months ago
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Of course! I made sure to write “once the GAs are over” as well :D

5 months ago
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Deleted

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5 months ago
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https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/v??8i/street-fighter-v-champion-edition

?? = _OG _IGHT
hint: Duel between two aeroplane during WWII
begin 1 hour later

5 months ago
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level3+... begins in an hour...

5 months ago
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And EU only

5 months ago
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5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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Normally I should restrict GA to owners of Nvidia RTX GPUs but I'm not cruel so everyone's invited to admire (possibly?) ray traced reflections on pipes computed by their graphics card should they win.

One could say it's a pipe dream.

https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/NlU*S/pipeline-rtx-2

level 3, 22 hours remaining

current Nvidia GPU generation RTX *XXX

5 months ago
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JohanLejonborn got years ahead of you and of his time, making already 2 years ago a GA with your puzzle and RTX 7th Gen in mind ;)

5 months ago
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Well, I had a GeForce 7800 GT a while ago so there's that :)

5 months ago
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awww to late
i di like me some pipe dreams

5 months ago
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Good that you aren't a guy.... :-D

5 months ago
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lol

5 months ago
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ENDED!!
🚆 Overloop, Chasm, Grotto, The Town of Light, Mordheim: City of the Damned, Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island, Kathy Rain, Hands of Necromancy
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/stiFN/overloop

5 months ago*
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nice stacked train.

5 months ago*
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bump :)

5 months ago
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Bump :)

5 months ago
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Bump! Nice train and neat anti-bot test :D

5 months ago
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Stupid bots can go away! 😁

5 months ago
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i wanna join

5 months ago
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Copypaste https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/AAAAA/ to your address bar, then replace AAAAA with the letters you can find in my original post, look closer for the correct letters. Hope it helps.

5 months ago
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Thank you for the help

5 months ago
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You're welcome! 👍

5 months ago
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Deleted

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5 months ago
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Awesome, is there any guideline how to do it just like you did it? Out of curiosity because I believe it's better to make an invite giveaway than a public.

In the past 6 days I had 3 public giveaways and only 1/3 confirmed, whereas I'm awaiting confirmation from the other 2. The winners login everyday, even I send them a reply to activate the keys but I haven't got any reply yet, maybe they are bots.

Thanks in advance for any information provided.

5 months ago
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when creating a giveaway under point 6. there you can choose who can enter your giveaway

6.Who Can Enter
  Everyone
  Invite Only
  Whitelist / Steam Groups
Select the type of users that are able to enter your giveaway.

After creating your giveaway just copy paste the url or the 5 digit code somewhere like here or use in e.g. in a puzzle

btw. some usefull links:
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/b7gwc/formatting-help-faq
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/TLR8m/zelgh-magic-guide-to-basic-sg-puzzling-update-october-2017

5 months ago*
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Setting level restrictions helps avoiding such problems, because the site is infested with multis and bots

5 months ago
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btw... your winners being online all the time while not responding sounds a lot like bot users.
they only occasionally like on the weekend check for any wins from their many accounts and activate the keys and dont reply usually.
if they havent viewed your key even after 1 week, you can reroll for a new winner

i guess you have been very unlucky to come across such users in that short while

5 months ago
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Many thanks for your replies and guidelines. In the future I'll try to make an invite only giveaway.
Just have to wait for a day and then request for a reroll.

5 months ago
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No problem :)

5 months ago
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Bump 🥰

5 months ago
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bump

5 months ago
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^^

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump :)

5 months ago
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bump!

5 months ago
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Nice thinking

5 months ago
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Bump :)

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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buump!

5 months ago
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Deleted

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5 months ago
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Thank you!

5 months ago
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I'm struggling. I tried the bolded letters. I tried the first letter of the word with the bolded letters. I tried the first letter of the titles that had bolded letters. What am I doing wrong?

5 months ago
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Did you keep the same letter case?

5 months ago
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Tried that, no luck.

5 months ago
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Did you keep the / at the end?

5 months ago
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Yes. No luck (thanks for helping though)

5 months ago*
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I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. How is it not just stifn

5 months ago*
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It's case sensitive.

5 months ago
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I swear I did that and it wasn't working but now... I got it.

5 months ago
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Is that link not working for you? It's correct.

5 months ago
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Once I posted as a link it worked. It wasn't working when I typed it into the browser. Maybe it's cause I'm on mobile or something. Who knows? Edited link in case that's against rules. I don't want no trouble with the mods.

5 months ago
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I bet you ran into your mobile browser saving a lower case link, and when you put in the upper case one, it 'corrected' it for you. That's what happened to me. You can press and hold the old link and delete it, then the new lower/upper case you typed in won't get 'fixed'.

Just a guess though.

5 months ago
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Thanks again for helping..

5 months ago
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bump!

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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Bump! and Thanks for the amazing train.

5 months ago
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Bump!

5 months ago
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bump!

5 months ago
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Thank you! :)

5 months ago
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Thank you for the interesting train and bump! 🤜

5 months ago
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You're welcome! Not a spectacular train I think but if it makes some winners happy, that's all that counts!

5 months ago*
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Bump!

5 months ago
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bump

5 months ago
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Bim Bam BUMP !!!

5 months ago
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