Starbucks is now set for record gift card sales as they brought a new model of an absurdly expensive, limited edition crystal-encrusted gift cards to the table for $200.

The company's newly created "premium cards" are made to perfect for all truly die-hard Starbucks fanatics, as stated by the news website, KTLA 5. The card is made of stainless steel, colored in deep blue and encrusted with Swarovski crystals. It comes preloaded with $50 and customers can only purchase it one at a time. Perks of having the card include free food and drinks via the company's rewards program.

"The first two cards in the collection, a key-chain-sized Silver Crystal Starbucks Card and a key-chain-sized Champagne Crystal Starbucks Card, are already sold out online," said Sanja Gould, a spokeswoman for Starbucks. The third, wallet-sized crystal card is the only remaining design available online. These cards are available in selected branches in the U.S. and Canada.

Aside from the crystal card collection, Starbucks are also offering more than 60 Starbucks Cards with holiday imagery and other holiday theme designs.

"One in seven American adults received a Starbucks Card last holiday season, and Starbucks is on track for another record performance in Starbucks Card sales," Starbucks said in a press release last Tuesday.

According to the company they are expecting a record number of gift-cards to last-minute shoppers this Christmas Eve. Last year, 2.5 million purchases were made in the US and Canada where the company has sold an estimated 1,700 gift cards per minute on same day last year. They also added that the cards were so popular all year round that almost a third of all Starbucks transactions in Canada and the US were paid using it.

Since it was available 15 years ago, an estimated $25 billion have already been loaded to the Starbucks gift cards. In fact, during the holiday season of last year alone, customers have loaded a total of more than $1.6 billion onto their Starbucks Cards.

"Starbucks has pioneered the development in gift cards," said Brian Riley, executive adviser and a gift-card expert at CEB, a professional services firm. He also stated that the company has gone beyond the gift card as mere transaction device.

Based from the National Retail Federation's Gift Card Spending Survey which have been posted in Market Watch, nearly about 73.4 percent of 7,172 adults surveyed which was published last November said that they prefer to be at least one gift card. 15 percent of them said that they would buy six or even more.