Bolty's Note: The street value of a Stone of Jordan dropped immensely the day of this discovery...this no longer applies for Diablo II v1.08 and later.

Want to check a theory...

It seems that the Stone of Jordan is rarer than the Nagelring, right?

Yet their doesn't seem to be any "level" for uniques.

I'm wondering if maybe the only way to get the later uniques if there are multiple uniques for a base item is if the earlier ones are already in the game.

So, has anyone has ever gotten Manald Heal in a game where they know there was no Nagelring, or the Stone of a Jordan in a game without either of those? Or the Eye of Etlich in a game where the Nokozan Relic has never made an appearance, or the Mahim-Oak Curio in a game without both of those?

Bolty's Note: Then, in a reply to his own post, Ondo wrote:

I just checked this by making every unique a ring. You do always get the first one that isn't in the game. So now we know why GFrazier hasn't got the Stone of Jordan.

Bolty's Note: Ondo was referring to Blizzard Employee Geoff Fraizer's quest to get a Stone of Jordan for a character of his, and how he had no luck gambling for one.  It turns out that a unique cannot be found in a game if it's on another character (or in their stash) in the game.  In order to get a Stone of Jordan, the first two unique rings must exist in the game already, on other characters or in their stash.  This applies to unique amulets as well, where the Nokozan Relic must exist in the game before an Eye of Etlich can be found or gambled for.