Topps......what in the world is going on?

So........a while ago I had an issue with Topps and their justification of "equal" replacement: http://annoyanceatitsfinest.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-big-kahuna-vs-topps-via-better_30.html

It was done and over with and I accepted the Devon Still as my replacement and moved on because it just kept getting worse with the selection choices they gave me and the case was closed.

SO in the mail this past week I received this from Topps:

3 years and 2 months later Topps has sent this "gift" to me. I was already under the impression that this was a done deal and that Devon was to be accepted as the end result of our negotiations. Now I feel really weird about this whole thing and it has left me with 5 thoughts:

1. Topps is really really really slow in shipping out their replacement products.
2. Topps must've found all the notes from the Better Business Bureau complaints I've filed against them over the years for their bait and switch tactics they've tried with me  and want to kiss and make up for it.
3. Topps is trying to win back their customers for their mistakes they've made?
4. Topps computer systems are so screwed up they cannot keep an accurate track of who had stuff sent out and who didn't.
5. Topps is clearing out their warehouse of all football related items.

I reached out on twitter to https://twitter.com/yanxchick as I thought maybe she might have a thought or opinion on the situation but I have not heard anything back yet from her. I feel like sending these cards back to Topps because we had agreed already on the replacement which they already fulfilled.

What would you do? Would you keep them? Would you send them back? Would you throw them into the volcano pit? Would you throw them into a blender?

Topps redemption blues

I believe that we in some way or another feel a little this way when it comes to Topps and their redemptions so here is a short poem about Topps and their redemptions:

Pulled a redemption card today did we, aren't you excited to see who it will be? Load the numbers up on to the redemption site, then press enter quickly with all of your might. Why is it suddenly saying the code is not valid, you quickly entered the numbers again fully undoubted. The code has expired as the years have come to pass, good luck buddy on pulling any decent cards from our ass. Quick call the BBB, the FBI, the POLICE or my lawyer, Topps customer service has gone out of order. How can they do this to me how can this be, I gave them all my money surely can't you see? "Call us back when we have the power, we have to go as our flight leaves in an hour. We have your money we have your pride, why even bother with us just take it in stride." Damn you Topps and your filthy dirty cheating ways, You're just like that Obama Guy and will bend us over anyways. Now all I can do is grab my ankles and hope for the best, oh look they just sent me an auto of a ballplayer who's under arrest.

T. Hertzog

Patch card? Says it's a patch card.......Oh Topps.....you fooled me again.

In the hobby world of jersey and patch memorabilia cards, it's always fun to pull or find a low serially numbered patch card. According to some of the manufacturers these patch cards are supposed to have a piece of a jersey number or piece of the name plate or even a piece of the team emblem on them. Some examples of this would be something like this:

or a beauty like this

another fine looking specimen

As beautiful as some of these cards may turn out to be it just so happens every now and then you do get some blunders and stinkers when it comes to pulling these low serially numbered "supposed patch" cards like this 2011 Topps Finest football Bilal Powell card that I pulled that says, "player worn patch" right on the card and it's serially numbered 19/25

What I did get was a plain old jersey swatch. The exposed white on the side of the "patch" window is due to the crooked piece of jersey exposing the sliver of a jersey number or letter.  Somebody in quality control made an oops there. Let's look at another example of a card missing some quality patch materials.

 This was a card that I pulled from out of 2011 Topps Supreme. Adrian Peterson and Maurice Jones-Drew autographed and serially numbered 3/5 game used relic card. Now can you picture this for a minute and visualize with me that would it not be more appropriate for these low numbered cards (especially the Peterson) to specifically have patch pieces instead of just a plain old jersey swatch? However when something is this low numbered I feel it would look ten times better with a piece of patch emblem. Now the yellow swatch could be from the neck line as that is about the only visible yellow that I know of on the vikings jersey and that's cool in its own way in terms of collectible pieces.

If we look at this 2011 Topps Supreme 4 player jersey card serially numbered 9/25 it also another victim of the plain old jersey swatch.

Then we have something like this card:

A 2011 Topps Finest Stevan Ridley rookie autograph player worn patch card serially numbered 354/599. It's just a blue solid patch and I'm not 100% sure but I don't think it's jersey material as it's too heavy of a fabric from the feel of it.

Here's a good example of rather well used patch piece.


While it may be only limited to 49 copies there is some quality patch material that was used in the making of this card. Notice how the patch piece is also more than a "inch cube" of material and almost goes the length of the card and seems to be of multiple colors as well.

Here's another example of a color patch limited to 99 copies:









Sometimes with these patch cards you get the elastic bands from the sleeves or necklines like these cards:







  and my hats off to PANINI for pulling off these cards

You're getting the whole top of the jersey tie!

The manufacturers sometimes need to take a step back and look at how they're producing these cards. No company is exempt from having blunders and mistakes happening in the production/application process.  What it all really comes down to is what you want for your own personal collection and for your own personal amusement. 

The Big Kahuna vs Topps via the Better Business Bureau....PART 2

Well....Topps seems to have to move pretty fast on this issue. Five days after receiving a reply back from the BBB and Topps with their answer to the BBB I had received a package on my Birthday (July 26- how convenient) from the Topps company in good ol Duryea, PA.

Let us call this Exhibit A:

We've all received these "thoughtful and heartfelt" replacement letters when Topps fails to acquire the signatures of the athletes they are to have in a product. When I read over mine it was as if a "tear" had formed in the corner of my eye. Why? because I knew Topps was going to fail me and wanted me to know that the signature they were sending to me was the BASTARD CHILD from the result of Topps sleeping in a bed of greed with BECKETT. I love it when they say in the letter at how they are "trying to obtain the exact card on the redemption". Gee...It makes me want to get a kitten a warm bowel of milk over those warm felt words. Then my favorite, "Due to circumstances beyond our control".....in other words, "OOPS.....we shipped the product before the athlete signed....how sad for you. Here is a kitten with a bowel of warm milk to comfort you. No worries as he will sign soon". So if Toyota advertises a truck with V8 but gives you the same truck with a V6 and charges you the same price as the V8 that is justified in their words? AYE!

Let us call this Exhibit B:

a 2012 Bowman Devon Still autograph is what I received from Topps Customer Service. So they replaced my first round pick from a premium card stock with a second round pick with cheaper card stock. Sounds like they hired the guy from the Trojan company who made sure the second-hand irregular condoms were sold at a premium price for all Ollie's Bargin outlets. I do feel lucky though because some poor hobby lover had it worse than I did. Just look on some of the comments in BLOWOUT CARDS forums as to what they had for replacements.

This is what I had originally:

 

 So was I screwed out of my original card.....again by Topps. My question is should I send it back for something better? My other thoughts are why did they not replace it with something else from Strata? Mark Barron signed other cards-Could they not have replaced it with another Mark Barron autograph? The guy they did send me was from PSU and did they send that to me because I live near PSU ( I despise PSU- GO IRISH!)? Sorry but I can't help but feel like I got a little bit ripped off on this one. The Tribe is far from spoken on this one!

The Big Kahuna vs Topps via the Better Business Bureau.....FOR WHAT ITS WORTH.

Well after waiting a while and not getting any replies from any Topps Customer Service other than from one person at Topps regarding my pending redemptions (2) who understood my frustrations but could not do anything at all, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I filed on July 2 and the BBB sent a letter on July 8th to Topps and this was the reply I got back today from Topps:

Dear Tim Hertzog :

This is in reference to your complaint against The Topps Company Inc..  Your complaint was assigned ID #9608718.

The business has sent the BBB a response regarding this complaint, which is below or attached.  Please respond to this message electronically or by written correspondence within 6 days. 

If we do not hear back from you within that time, we will assume the case is resolved.

Your statement of your complaint [and your final response to any replies from the business] may be made public in the BBB Business Review for this business on www.newyork.bbb.org.  Please be careful to make statements that are correct and not likely to create liability for you when they are published.

Sincerely,

Brandon Cardinale
Mediator
Phone: (212) 358-8022

THE TEXT OF YOUR COMPLAINT WILL BE PUBLICLY POSTED ON THE BBB WEB SITE (BBB reserves the right to not post in accordance with BBB policy). PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ANY UNNECESSARY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION (such as social security numbers, birth dates, etc.)  IN DESCRIBING THE NATURE OF YOUR COMPLAINT. BY SUBMITTING YOUR COMPLAINT, YOU ARE REPRESENTING THAT IT IS A TRUTHFUL ACCOUNT OF YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE BUSINESS. BBB MAY EDIT YOUR COMPLAINT TO PROTECT PRIVACY RIGHTS AND TO REMOVE INAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE.

MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS:

Hi Tim, 

We're sorry to hear you've waited such a long time for this card. Unfortunately, Mark Barron has not signed these cards yet. When a card is meant to be put into production, we only insert redemption cards when we have a deal with the athlete in question, and the athlete's agent. Unfortunately, this does not always guarantee as timely signing session, as professional athletes travel frequently, as well as have varying degrees of willingness to sign cards for us. 

We only keep a very small percentage of what we print, which is why, if we replace this card for you ,we cannot guarantee any specific player. We can only promise that it will be a football athlete that has the same Beckett Book (memorabilia pricing) value.

Please let us know if you would like a suitable replacement, or if you would like hold off until hopefully Mr.Barron signs these cards.

Thank you.

From what I can recall Topps has these athletes sign a contract. Does not Topps put a payment clause  and signatures requested by a certain date in the contract if the athlete does not sign his "stickers" and thus the contract becomes voided when the athlete fails to do his part? Are they paying them before they get the signatures from the athletes? And why is BECKETT still in the same bed with Topps (Beckett book value)? Unfortunately that is one relationship that will never decease. 

 

Also I'm sorry but there is no way in hell that Topps sends out quality same Beckett book value cards in exchange. THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF LOYAL COLLECTORS THAT CAN TESTIFY TO WHAT TOPPS HAS GIVEN THEM IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR HIGH VALUE CARDS AND IT'S HIGHWAY ROBBERY what some collectors have received! Something has to be done. Someone has to see that this is a headache for everyone involved.

Speak out folks! How were you effected by the redemptions?

The Tribe has spoken!

TOPPS redemption department......apparently has been fired!

Well......in a another "bright" move by Topps and their lovely redemption department they are now making "staff changes" and the redemption replacements process will be delayed for at least a month. I found this out today when I called about my pending Topps Strata Mark Barron autograph redemption that has been forever in the making. I could not get any replies on twitter and I did not hear anything from my email ticket. Here's a funny note from outlook about Topps support about the email ticket:

Be careful! This sender failed our fraud detection checks.

Anyhow, I decided to place a call into the Topps CS dept. and spin the wheel of "what line will you be fed today." After 5 minutes of waiting and hearing David Wright blah blah blah I suddenly was talking with a live person....yeah! I will admit the lady was very kind with me on the phone today and after explaining my issue to her she even said that she can completely understand my frustration with the redemptions. She also politely explained to me that their redemption department is undergoing significant necessary staff changes at this time and that it may be about a month till they resume starting it back up. She told me that I could call back then and see about a replacement if they did not get any more of Marks autographed stickers returned. My thought first thought was, "wow......honesty." My second thought was, "DAMN STICKER AUTOS." She also mentioned that they are still shipping things once it reaches 10,000 as well. Just great. BARF......so much better. Oh well....at least I got some honesty instead a BS line of spew.

And the Hunt is on with Topps Customer Service Part DEUX

Well in the mail today I received my replacement from Topps Customer service for not having the redemption card of Topps Tier Rickey Henderson Dual Relic card that I submitted a few months ago. Behold the glory of what they sent me:

2010 Donavan Tate Bowman Chrome Blue refractor autograph 132/199

So my son looked up the player and the one thing that made me sick was he has been suspended twice for drugs and has spent most of his professional career on the sidelines with injuries. So he’s been banned more games than he has played.

My question for you is would you accept this as a replacement or would you be on the phone to Topps customer service? If you look up the “Beckett Value” the Henderson is still worth double the amount.

AND the hunt is on with Topps Customer Service

On March 6th I received some unfortunate news from Topps:

Dear Consumer.
This email is to inform you that the Topps Company is currently beyond the 15 week processing time allocated for the following redemption card:

Product:   Card/Player Name
Topps Tier One   Top Shelf Dual Relic of Rickey Henderson

Our staff is working diligently to process and ship your redemption card as soon as possible.  Please continue to check your Online Redemption account for updates regarding the status of your card. If you no longer wish to wait for the redemption card, please contact our Consumer Relations team in order to place a substitution request for a card of equal Beckett value. Do not hesitate to contact our Consumer Relations department via phone at 1-800-489-9149 or via email at support@etopps.com for assistance. A consumer relations representative will be available to assist you
Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30 pm (ET).

Sincerely,

Consumer Relations
The Topps Company, Inc.

I called the customer service number and asked for a replacement. Only the SPORTSCARDS GODS knows what I shall be sent. Perhaps if I sacrifice a goldfish, a squirrel, a blind shrew, and a case of girl scout cookies into a volcano then I may not be sent a Willie Fisterbottom jersey card.

Topps 5 Star Football Questions

I posted this statement on the Topps Facebook page and it didn't last longer than 10 minutes till they took it down already. I think these are pretty legit questions in what I am asking of them regarding Topps 5 star football:

I have three questions regarding the upcoming 5-star football: 1. Will there be redemptions in this product? 2. Why do you continuously have to make it the same combo cards like Rice and Montana considering there has been how many player combinations/hook ups over the years? Why not something like Favre & Driver or something like Defensive Tandems say like "Ray Lewis and Ed Reed"? 3. Can you actually make it more like a jumbo pack and actually get more than 5 cards considering the price you have to pay to get all the cards if you attempt to complete the set?

Needless to say I doubt very much that I will have an answer from them at all.

My Topps Million Cards have shipped....Finally!

I had a total of 17 cards that I had "opened" on the Topps Million Cards giveaway site. 10 of those cards I felt were worthy enough to be purchased and I was rather quite surprised as I did manage to pull a few vintage cards and I just about had a heart attack when I pulled my favorite all time NY Mets rookie card of: HOJO (clap I say....Clap fool) ! As for the other 7 cards that I chose not to order I decided it was best to let Topps throw them back into the vault because they were mostly junk and I do mean junk (1990 topps, 1989 topps and 1995 topps). So Four score and seven years ago, after billing my credit card quite some time ago Topps deemed me worthy enough and decided to finally ship my order out. Hopefully these cards will not be in poor condition when they arrive as I've been hearing some awful horror stories lately.

Thank you for your order

1955-BB-TS1-81-NA  Gene Conley              1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1972-BB-TS1-551-NA Ollie Brown              1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1957-BB-TS1-116-NA Mike Fornieles           1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1968-BB-TS1-190-NA Bill White               1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1985-BB-TS1-192-NA Howard Johnson           1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1972-BB-TS1-62-NA  Angel Mangual            1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1974-BB-TS1-480-NA Willie Crawford          1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1976-BB-TS1-75-NA  Larry Dierker            1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1971-BB-TS1-126-NA Danny Coombs             1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 
1967-BB-TS1-321-NA Mayo Smith MG            1  02/16/11  SHIPPED 

What to do oh what to do......We need a Savior (and not Y2J either)!

Today I am officially retiring from purchasing anything that bears the name "TOPPS" on it for the upcoming football season and the remainder of the 2010 baseball season. After seeing the loads of crap today that came pouring out of a case of 2010 Allen & Ginter Baseball and by "crap" I mean poorly cut cards, not getting your "Guaranteed Hit/jersey/auto/someone's swim trunks cards", Coalition issues out the ying yang, and packs of cards missing the proper amount of cards (watched three boxes freshly opened from a case to see 14 packs of cards short 2 cards in the packs to make them full packs). Topps obviously has some serious quality control issues and until things improve I'd rather spend my spare change on toilet paper and tissues then to buy another pack of crap. I felt so bad for my friend Troy after seeing him pull 6 Brian Roberts Game used bat cards, 4 Jay Bruce jersey cards, 3 Matt Kemp jersey cards, 3 Darren Taylor Swim suit relic cards, 2 Adam Dunn game bat cards, 2 Rich Hill auto's, a Cameron Maybin auto, a Ricky Nolasco auto, a Ross Ohlendorf auto, and the BIG PULL: an Avery Jenkins auto. NO MAJOR CASE HITS AT ALL. He took pictures of everything as it was being opened so I hope he'll post it on the web soon. He said he was going to send it to Topps customer service as well. I'm glad it wasn't my money spent! His only bright spot was pulling a David Wright mini limited to 50 for which I may have to kill him for.....I mean trade with him for it!

Topps Customer Service .....OUTSTANDING!!!

Bet you all thought I had something nice to say..... LOL!

I emailed Topps about my redemptions for 2 Dexter Fowler Finest auto patch cards and why they have been marked shipped for months now and why I have not received them yet. Funny thing is I emailed them on the fourth of February and they belt out a reply of "why it was processed yesterday". Here is their reply:

Subject
RE: Redemption Issues [Incident: 091215-000012]

Discussion Thread
Response (Daniel) 02/04/2010 10:46 AM
Hello,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding Topps. The products you are expecting may take up to 4-6 weeks to reach their final destination from the processing date. The date the order was processed was Feb 3rd. Thank you for your continued support of Topps.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service team (By Phone: 800-489-9149, or by Email:support@etopps.com) if you ever have any other questions, comments or suggestions. A customer service representative will be available to answer your questions between the hours of 8:30am-4:30pm (EST), Monday through Friday.

Sincerely,

Consumer Relations
The Topps Company, Inc.

First off I am not supporting TOPPS anymore period. It's done and over with as far as I am concerned. I had 2 Tommy Hanson Finest autograph redemptions and only one was sent to me and the other one is now apparently pulling this shit:

Shipment of this redemption card has been delayed

Redemption Code:	FBB7H5GNR2
Code Entered:	05/07/2009
Redeemed Card:	MLB Rookie #10 DP10 2009 Topps Finest Baseball
Status:	Pending

Oh what the f&#k happened? Did we run out of sticker auto's? God TOPPS is so misleading anymore. Last year it took over a year to get my redemptions from Finest which were messed up and then had to be sent back to the morons and even then it was not corrected properly as the cards came back damaged again. Then you screwed me over on my Allen & Ginter box from this past year and still never corrected the problem even after I sent everything back to you including the whole box of damaged cards, the proof of purchase, my blood, my semen, my urine, a copy of me opening the box, a copy of me boning the hell out of your mom, screwing your cousin sue, mounting Aunt Jean, and then making your grandmother scream, etc.

"thank you for your continued support of Topps" they say. I depart leaving a Samuel L. Jackson quote:

“Yes they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell!”