Wednesday, June 08, 2011

I Get Letters... From Topps.

A couple of months ago, when I was still corrupt and on-the-take, Topps sent me a free box of 2010 Topps Sterling. In that box was a redemption card good for a one-of-one autographed "relic" card of Mike Piazza. Yes, getting a redemption card in a box of cards that retails for $200 sucks, but hey, I didn't pay for it.

Fast forward to today, when I received a package from Topps containing this...



In case you're wondering, yes, that is a one-of-one White Whale card of Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez from 2009 Triple Threads.

So, for all of you who plunked down your $100 for a pack of Triple Scraps back in '09, isn't it great to know, in retrospect, that a 1/1 of three of the Yankees' biggest stars NEVER EVEN MADE IT INTO THE PACKS?

10 comments:

Ryan G said...

Nice to know that a Piazza autograph is worth as much as A-Rod, Cano, and Texeira combined, with relics, plus a Pujols triple relic.

Gotta love holding back awesome cards.

Nathan said...

haha, man topps fears you :)

The Lost Collector said...

I think the Yankee card is awesome, but like Ryan said, it's crappy that it never made it into packs. Even the Pujols is #'d to 25, but clearly Topps didn't distribute all 25. That's annoying.

dayf said...

I'm beginning to rethink my anti-graft pure as the driven snow disdain for corporate suck-uppery stance on blogging.

Of course Topps knows you'll just end up sending those to A Cardboard Problem in the long run anyway.

the sewingmachineguy said...

Speechless...
Wait, what a bunch of shit.

Mad Guru said...

What I don't get is if they are keeping cards back to be used as redemptions, shouldn't they have them on hand to send out? "We were trying to obtain the exact card specified on your original redemption". What happened to it? Did they just figure one would pop up in the offices?

Offy said...

I guess that I'm in the minority when it comes to this issue. Take some time and consider things from the other side of the issue.

Say you pull one of those Pujols cards that is numbered to 25 copies and when you open the pack, you see that there's a huge crease along the front of the card. You contact Topps, hoping for a replacement, and find out that they don't have another copy of the Pujols card to send as a replacement.

There's also this situation. Topps over-promised on the Piazza (really Topps? Does he just not like you because as far as I know he's not a TV analyst or anything like that these days. He's probably got time to sign on card.) and needed to some something of similar value as a replacement. Would you rather that they send product instead? What if that box was opened and there was an extra hit. Then everyone would complain about the person being sent a loaded box.

It's not like these cards are walking out the back door. I thought all collectors knew in this day and age that a certain amount of product is held back for replacements. Would everyone rather they hold back the terrible cards and make a bad situation worse by sending those are replacements? These cards are produced and make their way into circulation one way or another.

It would be a big deal if someone found out that Topps held back 50% of the 1/1 cards from this set and therefore they couldn't be pulled from boxes, but I doubt that's the case.

I for one am happy that card companies do this. I pulled a Michael Johnson /99 autographed card redemption that was never produced and Upper Deck happened to have a nice Paul Pierce card on hand that they sent me in its place.

Yes, it sucks that the card you got wasn't available to pull from packs, but it's better than the alternative.

Chris Harris said...

Or...

Maybe Topps made 25 Albert Pujols cards, but only got enough pre-orders to justify putting 23 of them getting into packs?

Squires32 said...

"Would everyone rather they hold back the terrible cards and make a bad situation worse by sending those are replacements?"

That is the exact situation I am in with Upper Deck, received a Wayman Tisdale & Richard Hendrix Auto as a replaement for Al Horford (1 in 5500 packs) Auto. I'd rather they have something decent to send out and try and make a bad situation better. OK, maybe they shouldn't hold back 1/1's but you get the point...

csvcards said...

Hi, Is this Yankees 1/1 card for sale? If so how much? THanks for you time.

CHeng