Diamond Market - Part 2

Yesterday I introduced Spirit's answer to Topps' annual web-code-giveaway-thing, called the Diamond Market. Basically, you pull code cards that look like credit cards and redeem the codes on the back for credits, which can be used to 'buy' exclusive cards of players you might actually collect. Fairly simple. Today, we're unveiling the actual 'buying' structure along with the kind of cards you can get your hands on.

Like I mentioned yesterday, the credit values you unlock with a code are 25, 50 and 100. There are 4 tiers of cards:

• Base cards: 100-player checklist, numbered of 249, purchased for 10 credits
• Relic cards: same 100-player checklist, numbered of 149, purchased for 40 credits
• Jumbo Relic cards: same 100-player checklist, numbered to 99, purchased for 80 credits
• Autograph cards: same 100-player checklist, numbered to 49, purchased for 150 credits

As you may have noticed, the code credit values don't correspond to the card purchase values. Here's where the Diamond Market gets fun. Say you get a 25 credit code. Do you use it up immediately buying 2 base cards of players you like? Or do you let that balance sit while you try to find another code to add in hopes of getting enough for a jumbo relic or auto? Or say you're later into the collecting season and a lot of the cards are no longer available. Do you take the last auto of guy you're not too crazy about or do you snatch up 15 different base cards?

Maybe at the end of it, if you have unused credits and you can't really find anything left of interest, you can turn those credits into packs of other Spirit products. Or maybe they could partially carry over to next year's contest.

I'm not sure if the numbers for the print runs or checklists are right. Right now they add up to just under 55,000 total cards. But those could be manipulated to fit logistically. We could add another tier with a refractor or something, number it at 149. For now, this is a good start.

So what do you think of this concept? Anywhere you could see improvements? How does it stack up to Topps' apparatus? More fun than collecting virtual rings?