Featured Post

Topps Diamond Giveaway: I Redeemed My Cards (Part I)

I participated in the Million Card Giveaway last year (at least as far as redeeming my codes and seeing what cards I got).  However, I didn't end up with anything worth paying crazy shipping fees for so in the end all that happened was that I lost a bunch of virtual cards.  When Topps announced that it was doing the Million Card Giveaway Version 2.0 (aka the Diamond Giveaway), I figured I wouldn't bother redeeming codes and instead use any code cards to recoup some of my investment.

And for awhile, I kept my promise to myself.  I recall selling a couple of lots worth of Diamond code cards for about $15-$20 each, certainly not chump change but also no where near recovering the cost of the blasters that it took to accumulate the code cards.  Eventually though, I caved...I figured it made more economic sense just to have fun with the codes and see what I could "pull" on Topps' website.

As you can see from the above link, my initial foray into the Diamond giveaway was an unmitigated disaster. However, I did end up redeeming a few more codes over the next couple of weeks - and I made some trades.  All of which culminated in me deciding to pull the proverbial trigger and order up a small pile of cards from Topps.

How did I do it?  Well, here's the play-by-play:

Trade 1:
I traded a 1975 Topps card for a 1975 Topps card AND a 1995 Topps card.

For my first trade, I was content to try to grow my own catalog of cards.  I didn't have any particular attachment to the '75 White so landing a different '75 card plus a second card (of any year) seemed like a win to me.

Trade 2:
I traded a 2007 Frank Thomas for a 2005 Miguel Tejada card.

I have the entire 2007 set so the Thomas wasn't needed at all.  At the time, I didn't have any better offers so I figured I'd agree to the trade with the idea of turning the Tejada into something better later on.

Trade 3:
By the time my third trade was ready, I had redeemed my first Diamond Die Cut card.  Unfortunately for me, the card was of Desmond Jennings.  Unbeknown to me, Jennings must have quite a few fans out there since I had a bunch of offers within a short amount of time.  I decided to take the die cut of the player that I thought I would most likely be able to turn into a die cut of a player that I wanted (since no one offered my a Reds die cut straight up for the Jennings card).

In the end, I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, and acquired one of the whiniest baseball players ever, Chris Carpenter.  I couldn't wait to get rid of Carpenter for a team with the correct red colored uniform...

Trade 4:
One day later!

The Carpenter Die-Cut was gone, and my first Reds' Die-Cut was in my collection:  Johnny Cueto!

Trade 5:
My fifth trade was a surprise.  At this point in time, I had decided that I wasn't going to be purchasing any more Series I or II Topps - and thus, I wouldn't be acquiring any new code cards.  As such, I decided to try and package together many of the cards that I didn't want in hopes of landing a Die-Cut for what I deemed to be junk.

Eventually, I did get someone to agree to a swap - I ended up with a Die-Cut card of Andrew McCutchen and the other person ended up with 12 different cards (the best being a pair of 1970 cards plus the Hamilton and Tejada featured in previous trades).

Trade 6:

One last trade.  One more Reds Die-Cut.


Stay tuned, next time I'll show off the SEVEN cards that I had shipped to me.  Some of which have been featured in the above trades, and some of which haven't.

Comments

Post a Comment