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How rare are these things really?


I redeemed my THIRD Topps Diamond Diecut card on the Diamond Giveaway set today.

Earlier today, I was at Walmart, looking for Gypsy Queen. I don't really have much interest in GQ (maybe if it ever lowers itself to appearing in my sparsely populated area, I'll think differently), but I always like to check out the new stuff.

Unfortunately, Gypsy Queen is nowhere except for on 47 different blogs, which prompted me to grab another value box and consequently pull the Marlon Byrd diamond diecut.

To review, I have pulled a Babe Ruth diamond diecut (traded for a Jackie Robinson diamond diecut), a Roy Halladay diamond diecut (traded for a bunch of '50s goodness), and now Marlon here.

Is that normal that I should have three of these things already? Aren't they supposed to be relatively rare?

I suppose the perception of rarity comes from the fact that the set -- all 152 cards of it -- is available by only unlocking the cards, one by one, through the Diamond Giveaway site. For an entire set, you have to be crazy enough to try to trade for all of them on the site. It is very evident that some folks are trying to do that -- good luck to you all.

But just to figure out how many of these cards are actually out there, I went through the checklist and figured out how many have been redeemed, so far.

With the exception of two cards, each card in the set has been redeemed about the same amount of times -- in the 80 to 100 range.

Here are the cards that have been redeemed the most:

Chris Carpenter -- 120 cards
Neftali Feliz -- 112
Jose Reyes -- 112
Felix Hernandez -- 111
Mike Schmidt -- 110
Kurt Suzuki -- 110

Here are the cards that have been redeemed the least:

Bob Gibson -- 81
Ubaldo Jimenez -- 83
Kevin Youkilis -- 83
Tyler Colvin -- 85
Fausto Carmona -- 87
Rickey Henderson -- 87
Ryan Zimmerman -- 87

Of course, there are also black diamond variations of each of the cards, which if redeemed means you get all of your cards shipped for free. But for each card, only between 6-10 of those black diamond cards have been redeemed, so I left those out of the total.

I'm not sure how many of each card will be redeemed by the time this Diamond Giveaway site is over. But as of now, I suppose 120 or 81 of each card is pretty darn rare. Not exactly 1-of-1 territory, but on the exclusive side.

It's just that my brain is having a hard time believing the rarity thing when I've already redeemed three of them.

One other interesting thing that I found.

The last two cards in the Diamond Diecut set -- cards No. 151 and No. 152 -- have not been redeemed on the Giveaway site at all, at least not according to my searches.

Those two cards are both Yankees, Derek Jeter (151) and Lou Gehrig (152). The cards DO exist, because I've seen them on ebay. But I'm wondering if they are not available on the Giveaway site and only available as some pull out of a hobby box. I don't pay attention to such things, so someone may have to fill me in.

If it isn't available on the Giveaway site, I think that's crap. As much as I hate the Yankees and get annoyed by many of their fans, making two of the players unavailable in the customary way is a simple money grab, because Topps knows Yankees fans are manic about spending cash on collectibles.

Or it's possible that the search function was just being goofy (although I tried it many times and at different times).

Anyway, enough about the Yankees.

My Marlon Byrd diecut is now up for grabs. I'm hoping it'll land me either the Andre Ethier or Clayton Kershaw diecut. Some Cubbies fan will do that, right?

Come on, show some sympathy. I don't even have any Gypsy Queen around here.

Comments

Scott Crawford said…
I saw 151 and 152 in person yesterday at my local. Topps is giving them to stores, for reasons I don't quite understand, and neither did my card guy. I may have to ask the Topps guy on Facebook or Twitter.

It's important to note here that the die-cut diamond cards are REALLY nice looking in person, way better than the Target/Wal-Mart/TRU variety. I think you'll be REALLY happy with your Jackie when you get it.
Congrats. I can't unlock one for the life me.
flywheels said…
I've been making several trade requests via the Diamond site and nothing yet. If I'm reading the site correctly most of the Braves players I want have several cards unlocked...but no one is giving them up. I've even offered up '60s and early '70s cards.
dayf said…
I AIN'T REDEEMED SHIT.

Getting frustrated with the whole thing.
hiflew said…
Out of 12 cards my best redemptions are a 1977 Luis Tiant and a 1987 Pete Rose.

That's how bad it is for me, my 2nd best redemption is a 1987 Topps. I have done fairly well with trades though.

But I digress, congrats on your third pull and hopefully you can get something really good for it.

Screw being nice, you suck! Give me one!!! :)
Hits and Misses said…
I've turned in 35 codes so far and not a diamond in site. I did manage a 1959 Topps and a handful of 60's cards as well. I am getting a little sick of getting offered 1996 Topps Commons for my 60-70's stuff.
Doc said…
I unlocked a Jair Jurrjens DDC. I really don't care what these things are "worth," but I'm feeling 50s goodness is what it's worth to me.

It's also extremely early in the giveaway. I imagine my value of worth will change when December rolls around.
Anonymous said…
I think I've put in 20ish codes. I have a Danny Valencia DDC.

I know it's kind of rare, but all this crap wax I'm being offered is annoying. If any Twins fans are around I'll trade it for a Red Sox DDC or something I can trade for a Red Sox DDC. That's all I ask :) Or one of those Diamond 1/1s. I like sparkly.

I have some 50s and 60s available too if anyone wants them for their DDC. I don't care for vintage so let me know if you want to trade on Topps.
Scott Crawford said…
This should answer the 151-152 question:

http://twitter.com/#!/toppscards/status/66587687875903489

and

http://twitter.com/#!/toppscards/status/66587784684650496
night owl said…
Thanks, Scott.

I suppose it's not a big deal considering almost no one will complete this set, but not crazy about 2 cards in one set being available differently than all the rest of the cards.