Houston, We Have Vintage!

Redeemed my first 20 codes for the new giveaway tonight.  There actually is vintage!  Got a '59 on my second code.  Still got some 2007, 2001, a couple late 90's, but most are just like the first go-round ~ late 70's commons. 
The Diamond Dig is up and running.  Got a ring on every spot.  I figure that's the way it was designed.  Got my bonus code (Pujols - '79 Luis) and a skin-it that I'll never use.  I love how the scale goes from 15 to 45 in the middle.  The idea is to collect 60 unique rings and trade your dupes.  Not sure if there are different prizes for groups of each kind of ring - current teams, legacy teams, and vintage players.  Guess we'll find out soon as some case breaker can trade for enough.
Can't wait for the trading to start.  I think I might try for more '59s, but I'll probably have to drain several cards at a time to do it.
Kudos for Topps for an original innovation on the giveaways....

Comments on Topps giveaway(s)

 

The Topps Million Card Giveaway is almost over [Edit: tomorrow].  It is, of course, transitioning to the Diamond Giveaway after the first of March.  As the new chapter unfolds, there are a few things I've observed or adopted as policy while trading on the site.

• Any card offered for one of mine must be same year or older.  There must be a lot of young people out there who think that 200x semistars are worth vintage cards from the 60's just because they've heard of the newer guy and not the old one.  I won't be accepting your 2002 Todd Worrell for a 1963 Senator.  Call me the grumpy old man....
  
• If you offer the same thing twice, you are automatically refused.  Pay attention to the offers you make.  Making them more than once does not equate to shouting louder than everybody else.  You're just being obnoxious.  Stop it.
  
• You will be refused repeatedly if you offer each individual card you have for any of mine without at least trying to group them together to make it somewhat equal.  One 1985 common will never win even a newer star card, but if you put three together, you might just spark my interest.
• Some people are clever enough to lead a combination offer with a nice vintage card, but they usually round 'em out with 90's or 2K stuff.  Nice try.  You must be in sales.
  
• You will also be banned for life for ever making a successful trade with me if you offer each and every card you come across for some of mine and then offer me the same ones I have for others.  And do it twice or more.  I'm talking to you, mark882 et al.
  
• I will accept no trades for a 2001 Pudge Rodriguez.  I drew one myself and traded it away.  I don't want any more of them.  Blame Topps for putting a billion of them in the system.
  
• I strive to make every trade offer I create to be in your favor.  Almost all of my pending offers say "Offered card(s) are higher in value".  Take advantage.
• There's no reason to try to compete for any of the contests as long as there are case breakers out there.  No regular middle-wage Joes are ever going to match the numbers of these guys with the occasional handful of packs from Wal-Mart.  I use the Giveaway to fill in holes and upgrade my vintage player and set collections.  Besides, half the contests are biased toward the big market teams.  Feh.
  
• Topps, you need to hire more people to code your pages.  The arrows at the bottom of each page of the collection lists don't work when you try to make an offer and select one of your own cards.  It's a pain to have to scroll up and down all the time.  Also, half the names that "autocomplete" in the search form have two entries - one with two spaces between the names.  That one yields no results.  Not sure if the webmasters plugged in all the names, or they're just what people have entered into the form.
  
• Sunday evening I finally requested delivery of the cards I wanted to keep.  None of my last batch of trade proposals had any bites.  So I ended up with 44 cards out of 61 for delivery.  Came to $16 and change via UPS.  I must say they could have made the explanations of the shipping options a little more consistent.  For the post office, there was an initial charge for "the first card" and addtional cost for "each addtional card".  That makes sense.  For UPS, it said the first rate was for the "first Card Shipment" and then the other rate for "each additonal shipment."  That makes it sound like you could ask for your first "shipment" of 44 cards for the initial rate, and then, later on, get more cards delivered for the smaller charge.  Just word them the same, willya Topps?  Anyway, I hope all mine are in good shape.  Most of them are upgrades for 70's cards I already have.

I saw where one popular blogger had redeemed their new Diamond codes and hadn't pulled anything earlier than 2007.  It was only five or six codes, but it's not a good sign for the second phase if that proves to be the common result.  Hopefully, that was just a fluke.