This I Might Chase…on eBay

There hasn’t been a lot that’s come out of the land of Panini lately that has interested me. That’s pretty disappointing considering that I’m a huge basketball fan and loved the retro stuff that was coming from Topps. This card in the Beckett preview of 2011 Preferred caught my attention though. I’m not stupid enough to buy one of the $200 packs of this stuff especially since I’m pretty sure that this Howell card will go for less than $50 even though it will be limited to 99 or fewer copies. This card would make an awesome addition to my Celtics retired number autograph collection.

Speaking of Panini, it dawned on me today why I can’t stomach any of their products. Without hobby heavyweights Michael Jordan and LeBron James in their products, it’s rare that you can pull a card that isn’t a low serial numbered parallel that’s worth a lot of money. Check out Totally Certified, one of the hottest products in the hobby right now. What are people chasing? Is it a hot rookie auto? No. Is it a hot veteran auto? No. Is it a cool insert set? No. People are chasing the green parallels which are numbered to 5 copies. That’s what Panini is all about. There aren’t many cards with real value in their products. It’s all manufactured value that comes from slapping a low print run on a different colored version of a card that exists in 5 other versions. Yawn.

To all of the baseball card collectors out there complaining about Topps’ exclusive license and hoping that Panini gets a baseball license I say, be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.

The Battle of Who Can Care Less

I think for the most part, collectors don’t have a problem with redemption cards. It’s all of the hoop jumping, delays and expirations that make collectors loathe those pack-inserted placeholders. My annoyances with Upper Deck and their handling of the expired Ken Griffey autograph redemption that I pulled were well documented on this blog. Now I have two more stories to add to the pile.

I recently posted the results of my 2011 Finest Baseball break. I did really well in the break, pulling one of the best cards possible, but it’s pretty crappy to have both of the hits in your box be redemption cards. I redeemed the Hosmer gold dual relic auto right when I got back from the show, knowing that it was a live card. It’s now two weeks later and I still don’t have the card. What’s worse, the card has had a tracking number listed on the Topps website for a week with no tracking information. That means the card, my card, is packed up and sitting somewhere in Topps instead of it being in the mail on its way to me. That makes me feel that Topps doesn’t really care. I asked support and they said that they send stuff out in batches. Are you kidding me? They should be shipping stuff out every day of the week. I paid for this card, it is my property and they should be rushing to do whatever they can to get the card to me. It’s not like it’s even an on-card auto. They just didn’t manufacture it in time for release.

That’s nothing compared to Panini though. You would think that Panini would be better since they have a fancy website where you enter your redemption codes, open claims for damaged cards and other correspondence with the company. The only problem is that no one seems to be checking the site any longer. I remember that you could select between two periods of time that you’d like to wait on your redemption before Panini contacts you about a replacement. I think they are 3 months and 6 months, but I can’t remember for sure. Either way, the amount of time that I waited was far longer than any of the choices given.

I would send messages periodically through the Panini website asking what my option were for a replacement, but I never got a reply. After a year of waiting for the Cheryl Miller autograph, I finally decided that it was time to get something else because there’s no way that this card is ever going to exist. I tried the website again, but no one got back to me. I called and left messages with their support department and no one ever got back to me. It wasn’t until I contacted Tracy Hackler on Twitter that someone from Panini finally contacted me and told me that they’d be sending me a replacement card (at a $25 value) along with some packs of Hall of Fame Basketball.

It is now 3 weeks later and I haven’t seen a thing from Panini. You would think that after keeping me waiting for a year they would want to do something to make me happy as quickly as possible. That doesn’t seem to be the case though. At this point, I feel like they should be sending me a case of Hall of Fame Basketball. The product was a huge flop anyway and there’s still a ton of it out there. They should have lessened the amount of autographs that were numbered 499 and above. That might have made this product a hit.

I won’t even get into the problems that occur when a replacement card doesn’t match the card it is replacing. I might have to go another round with Panini once my redemption card arrives. I had to do that with Upper Deck when they sent the first replacement for my Michael Johnson autographed card. In the end, I would up with an awesome Paul Pierce on-card auto, but I wonder why that wasn’t sent in the first place when I told them I was looking for a Celtics card as a replacement.

You’ve also got issues of availability. That’s especially evident with things like the Home Run Legends in 2012 Topps Baseball. There are many people who don’t have a card shop near them that they can get to in order to redeem the cards.

I’ve got to give Upper Deck some credit for their upcoming World of Sports release. Sure, it’s unlicensed. Yes, last year’s release was a flop. Yeah, this year is likely to be a flop as well. You know what though? There are absolutely no redemption cards in this set. That’s a good thing. When you can possibly pull players such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods isn’t that important? Having pulled a Michael Jordan autograph out of a pack, I can say without a doubt that it was 100 times more exciting to pull the actual card. Pulling a redemption card for the auto would have been a huge buzz kill.  I probably would have just sold the redemption card and never had the opportunity to hold a Michael Jordan autograph in my hand.

So, I think with some changes, the stigma around redemption cards could change. Card companies have done well in extending redemption expiration dates to around 5 years, but having them expire at all is never going to be ideal. Turnaround times need to be quicker. Communication needs to be better. Panini has made great strides with this and Topps followed suit for a little while, but their support on a whole has been really lacking lately.

Hopefully there will come a time when redemption cards are a thing of the past, but for now they’re one of the worst parts of the hobby.

“Will you ever rest…”

2012 Topps Jumbo Box Break

I love Topps jumbo boxes. The fact that most of the time they contain a complete set is a huge plus, but you also get a guaranteed autograph and a whole bunch of inserts and giveaway cards. On the basketball side of things, I’ve pulled a  couple of rip cards and a Blake Griffin McDonald’s All-American autograph. As far as baseball goes, I haven’t pulled anything ridiculously good. Here’s what I pulled out of this box.

A lot of people have criticized this year’s Topps inserts for their Panini-like qualities and they’re right. Far too much blank space on there cards. I really hope that Topps doesn’t make a habit out of designing cards for the autograph variations. From this box (plus my one pack) I pulled Ryan, Molitor, Ripken, Banks x2, Reggie, Seaver (Reds), Cobb, Thome, Jeter and Seaver (ChiSox). Everything is available for trade especially if you are offering gold, red or blue Red Sox or 1987 Minis.

This is the Topps nonsensical pairings set of the year. I could do without these cards altogether unless they greatly improved the pairings. I pulled Molitor/Braun, Mattingly/Hosmer, Mays/Kemp, Robinson/Bautista, Sandberg/Uggla x2, Bench/McCann, Bob Gibson/Halladay, Joe Morgan/Brandon Phillips, Banks/Tulowitzki and Edgar Martinez/David Ortiz. Everything except for the Ortiz is available for trade.

Here are some more Panini inserts. I pulled Derek Jeter, Dawson, Prince, Braun, Jered Weaver, Paul O’Neill x2, Pujols, Brooks Robinson, Kaline and Aparicio. Trade me stuff for these.

I think these cards might be the worst offenders when it comes to mimicking Panini’s laziness. The logo holds the place of the relic and the grayscale image on the bottom holds the place for a potential autograph. It’s still not as bad as Panini because they do this with their base cards and insert cards, but it’s still pretty damn bad. Trade me stuff for these as well.

I think these might be the best inserts in Series 1 that aren’t minis. I pulled Gehrig, Ryan, Mays, Mays, DiMaggio, DiMaggio, Jeter, Clemente, Ripken, Aaron and Ruth. All of these are available for trade as well.

Ok, so maybe there are too many inserts in Topps Flagship. I pulled Lavarnway, Britton, Chapman, Hellickson, Kimbrel, Arencibia x2, Rizzo, Stanton, Dee Gordon and Arodys Vizcaino.Everything but the Lavarnway is up for grabs.

Here’s the gold parallels. I’ve got Betancourt, Teixeira, Dee Gordon, Jeremy Moore, Joe Benson, Kelvin Herrera, Scott Downs, Brian Matusz, Michael Taylor, Chris Parmelee and Mark Trumbo. All are up for trade.

I’m going to be putting this set together, so none of them are available for trade except the extra Jeter that I have which is only available for another mini that I need.

Here are the traditional hits from the box. Even though the Billingsley is a powder blue swatch instead of the typical plain white that you usually see, it’s still kind of boring. The basic jersey card has run its course due to overuse and overproduction. When some players have had hundreds of jersey cards, you know that too many have been made. I wouldn’t be that disappointed at all if jersey cards were to disappear from the hobby. At least limit their production a lot more and keep them all serial numbered.

Then there’s the sticker auto. What is there to be said about the sticker auto that hasn’t already been said. At least Topps is using clear stickers instead of the gaudy foil stickers that they used to stick on cards.

So, you’ve got a terrible autograph on a lazy, Panini-like insert card. That’s not game changing at all. The Byrd is available for trade.

The black parallels are a standard of Topps Flagship releases, but since this product is so hot right now the black parallels are selling for a lot more than then normally would.

I also think that a lot more people are chasing the black parallels since there aren’t any cards serial numbered to 2012. It seems like the increased production would have required a numbered parallel in every other pack so they just decided to leave them out this year. Seems strange to me to leave out the gold parallels in the gold set, but that’s Topps for ya.

This is where Topps hit the jackpot. These pin cards, the ring tops and the embedded coins are all beautiful cards with unique card designs. Check out the sale prices for most of the jersey cards from this set and then check out the sale prices for the rings, pins and coins. Big difference, isn’t it? Personally, I know that I’m more interested in a good looking card and innovation than and endless stream of jersey cards. The Ortiz and Pedroia pin cards are beautiful looking. Great job done by Topps on these.

Overall, I like the base cards and hopefully will be able to fuel a lot of trades with the inserts. When you factor in the wrappers for the redemption offer, the three hits, the Golden Giveaway cards and getting a complete set this is a great deal. Considering that I got this box for double digits when most places were selling them for $120 makes it an even better deal.

Slick Ginter

I’m a fan of the Allen & Ginter sets that have become a staple of Topps’ yearly release schedule. The only thing that I’m not a fan of is how difficult it is to complete the set.  You don’t even get enough cards in one box and then when you factor in all of the short prints, completing the set becomes more of a chore. Buying the complete set is no fun and so 2011 was the first year since I returned to collecting that I didn’t purchase a box of Ginter.

Topps did something different with 2011 Allen & Ginter that they hadn’t ever done before which was offer a factory set. This wasn’t just any factory set though, this was a limited edition, serial numbered to 999 factory set. The weird thing is, in this day and age, one of these sets ends up being worth more broken up than it is complete. There are a ton of team and player collectors out there.

I found someone on eBay who had broken up their set and had the singles listed at very reasonable prices. Pair that up with combined shipping and I’m a customer. The cool thing about getting all of these from the same person is that the serial numbers all match.

I picked up all of my favorite Sox along with Stan “The Man” Lee. Glossy Ginter cards are a first, but it brings me back to the days of the Topps Tiffany sets. Those cards weren’t serial numbered like these are, but they were pretty limited compared to the print runs of the regular cards.

2012 Topps Launch Day Major Hit

When I picked up my box of 2012 Topps Baseball Jumbos, I grabbed a single pack with the thought in mind that I would pick up a jumbo pack here and there to get myself up to the 14 wrappers needed for a redemption pack. I was pretty excited to find this card in the single pack.

There are 15 Gold Futures cards that come in autographed versions and each of these are numbered to 15. That’s just 225 cards across the whole production run of 2012 Topps. The stated odds are 1:8,875 jumbo packs or 1:148 jumbo cases. Case breaker extraordinaire Brentandbecca opened 60 cases and didn’t pull one of these autographs. (Although, I’m sure he doesn’t mind since he pulled one of the 14 Golden Tickets.)

Hosmer, Belt and Pineda are the big names to chase in this set, but Hellickson is no slouch having won the AL Rookie of the Year last season. The card is currently up on eBay with a three day auction and is the first one to be listed. Wish me luck!