Hi, I’m trying to figure out the tropical wind and tropical tidal wave’s rarities. I see on ebay there are differences in the text box, like “top thirty two” or “top sixteen” and “staff”. Were the top players awarded staff cards at these events? I assume staff is the highest rarity because they go for the most on ebay. Are the other levels worth getting? Specifically the 2006 art is one I like alot and was hoping to get some form of.
If you have the time, I suggest watching this Stamped World's Promos! Jake's Collection Series (Should I Collect and Invest?) - YouTube
video by @jacobm9 , as he really dives deep on some nuances of these cards. Smpratte did a couple videos as well.
Quick ascending general rarity rundown would be:
“Unstamped” / just the year stamp → staff ≈ top 32 → top 16 → q. finalist → s. finalist → finalist → (2012 and onward) champion.
Champion didn’t exist before 2012 so finalist is arguably as collectable as champion, though there are of course two finalists and only one champion each.
The number of cards given out for each tier varies over the years, e.g. with Pokemons popularity very low between 2005-2007, the respective worlds cards are much rarer in general than 2018 ones. IIrc, back then each player was only given the card of the respective tier they reached, so a semi finalist would only receive a semi finalist card or two, while in 2018 they would receive ALL the cards from top 32 to semi-finalist.
Awesome, thank you I’ll watch the video and I appreciate your explanation!
another solid resource is to look at the pop’s for some of these. Granted not everyone one of these cards is graded, but it can give a good estimate as well as to how few copies there are of these cards.
pop report doesn’t really mean anything like you said.
Two copies of each of the top-ranking versions are awarded to respective players across the three divisions making a total of 192 top thirty-two versions, 96 top sixteen versions, 48 quarter-finalist versions, 24 semi-finalist versions, and 12 finalist versions at each Worlds.
Here is the link for the above information.
Another consideration is that the staff version will appeal to staff promos collectors. They are also stand-alone, easier to collect (you only need to get 1 for each year) which also affects popularity and pricing.
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To the best of my knowledge from 2014 —
TCG competitors received two copies of their placement along with a copy of each placement below their own (ex. someone placing in the Top 8 would get a set of “Quarter-Finalist” stamped cards along with one copy of the “Top Sixteen” and “Top Thirty Two” respectively).
VGC competitors received the same, with the exception that they do not receive stamped cards for placing within the Top 32 or Top 16. (ex. someone placing in the Top 16 would not get any stamped cards).
So, from 2014, based on the three divisions for the TCG and VGC it’s:
144 “Top Thirty Two” Cards
72 “Top Sixteen” Cards
72 “Quarter-Finalist” Cards
36 “Semi-Finalist” Cards
18 “Finalist” Cards
12 “Champion” Cards
So there are fewer (not equal) numbers of the “Top Sixteen” and “Quarter-Finalist” cards before the introduction of VGC (fewer total cards for “Quarter-Finalist”, “Semi-Finalist”, “Finalist” and “Champion” respectively)
Pokken players also get a copy of the placement cards but I don’t actually know how many, or when it first started. I could be off, but this is the best I’ve come up with based on efour posts/talking to players 
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