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!

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.

TOPPS.....being sued?

I found this article today on deadspin.com and was rather surprised at the article. You can find the article here regarding a former Topps Employee. A copy of the article is down below if you do not want to click on the link. The link has a copy of the legal documents that were filed.

baseball cards

By Barry Petchesky

Feb 24, 2012 1:55 PM

16,119 27

Topps Sued For Firing Employee, Then Putting Him On A Trading Card

In the fall, Topps released a handful of very odd cards. Dubbed "American History Relics," they were five-card runs of John Henry, Pecos Bill, and Leif Ericson. Despite their rarity, the cards were a flop — one sold for $84 on eBay — perhaps because they were so strange. Card collectors like collector's items, but they mostly like baseball.
That's not our story. The story is the creation of the cards, which you might have noticed feature one man who died 1000 years ago and two men who never existed, and as such were probably hard to photograph. But that's a real human being up there as John Henry, the steel-driving man. His name is Christopher Holmes, and he used to work at Topps, and he never gave them permission to make him John Henry, and now he's suing for $4 million. That lawsuit is below.
Holmes was a brand manager in Topps's marketing department, and had been with the company since 1994. One former employee says Topps was "not the most diverse work environment," and as such, Holmes was the go-to when the art department needed a black guy. In 2008, he posed as "Wheelbarrow Walker," a fictional baseball player (what is with Topps and cards featuring nonexistent people?) and was happy to do it. He was told of the idea behind Wheelbarrow Walker, posed for the photoshoot, was shown the proofs before the card was printed, and signed off on them.
In July of last year, Holmes posed for another photo. It's not clear if he knew what this one would turn out to be for, but he claims he specifically prohibited the use of his likeness until he could see the finished product. In August, Holmes was fired from his job of 17 years, one of many casualties of Michael Eisner's restructuring (Eisner had purchased Topps in 2007.) In September, the "American History Relics" were released, featuring Holmes as John Henry.
"TOPPS never obtained the written authorization of Plaintiff for the use of his picture in the subject promotion nor did the Plaintiff provide his consent in any manner," says Holmes's lawsuit. "TOPPS knew, or should have known, that Plaintiff did not and would not consent to the use of his likeness, image, portrait, and/or picture to depict him as a former slave."
Holmes is seeking lost wages, royalties for the card, and a whopping $3,000,000 in punitive damages. The question will be whether he knew what he was posing for, and whether Topps still required his cooperation after firing him. We'll leave that to the American justice system, but we'll also note — as pointed out by a former employee — that "the only other black person on the floor" also sued Topps after being fired.

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.

TOPPS.......DOES IT AGAIN to POOCH THE CONSUMER!

The article as found on Topps web blog!

The much anticipated 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball officially streets today (4/27) and overall the product looks great, but it has come to our attention  that not all hobby boxes include the originally solicited 2 Autograph & 2 Relic guarantee (some  contain 3 Relics & 1 Autograph).  Any customer missing an autograph from their box will be taken care of.  Please mail in the box’s UPC code to Topps to receive a Gypsy Queen replacement autograph card. Please Send to:

The Topps Company Inc.
PO BOX  2036
Duryea, PA  18642


So now you have to spend more money sending in for the crap-shoot auto you didn't get when they had the "EMAIL" system set up in place to cover this well botched quality control issue. How can such a delayed product like this one have this kind of a mess up? Kudos to Topps for stepping in quickly again to fix a "quality control" issue. However just because Topps has stepped up to quickly "correct" the situation does not mean they're going to fall back into the "good graces" of the hobby enthusiasts. It's also apparent that topps are giving you less product then advertised if you're a set builder. How many other times has this happened where they're selling something that does not match the advertised sell sheets? You're getting about 350 cards instead the advertised 450. FAIL! NOT WINNING!

Topps Prime is the Old Stadium Club

Seems as if Topps made Stadium Club a little bit better with the release of "Prime". It Doesn't matter that "Prime" is almost the same photography shots of Stadium Club lore past and present with the action bleeding through the card. Obviously Topps did not get the memo about "sticker auto's" as this product is LOADED with them. It seems that the art of "on card auto" at Topps is non-existive anymore. The odds of you pulling that star rookie autograph of "Ben Dover" makes his return in this product. If and when you decide to purchase this product you get 10 packs per box and 4 serially numbered and or autographs per box with a price of $10.00 a pack. The inserts in this series just plain look blah with the 1,2,3,4 quarters jersey combo's. The only positive highlight of all the inserts is the Red Zone rookie autographs.

STOP IT TOPPS!!!

ATTENTION TOPPS: Why do you persist on making the "manufactured" patches? Why are you now making "manufactured" bat barrel cards? It's one thing to have the real thing in your hand. It's no fun when you pull a barrel card and it's a hunk of decorative DAMAGED art junk. Let it be the real thing or don't make it at all. It's worthless and just a filler like the thick white cardboard in a pack of cards or even sometimes the cards themselves!

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!

Random thoughts, moans, groans, and gripes

Time for another edition of my whining, random thoughts and useless office entertainment. Strap yourself in and leave it all hang out:

1.Derek Anderson was released by the Cleveland Browns today. His thoughts on it were:

"The fans are ruthless and don't deserve a winner," Anderson said in the e-mail Tuesday. "I will never forget getting cheered when I was injured. I know at times I wasn't great. I hope and pray I'm playing when my team comes to town and [we] roll them."

I can see Derek getting slapped by some Browns for these comments. However Derek may have to find a team first to play for in order for that to happen.

2. Nomar Garciaparra, who spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox, signed a one-day minor league contract with Boston on Wednesday, then retired, bringing to a close a 14-year career. Moments later it was announced that he's joining ESPN as a commentator.

My hats off to Nomar as he was a genuine class act for any team that he played on. Life is good for him: Played as a Boston Red Sox successfully, married a hot wife (Mia Hamm), and was a member of the 1992 Olympic Baseball team. Thanks for playing Nomar and enjoy the time with the wife and twins!

3. I'm ready for the new IRON MAN 2 movie. If you want to see the movie, "2012" then before watching it I suggest you take out your eyeballs first with some nearby tools or use a couple of New York City rats to help remove them. Then it will be safe to watch the movie. If you do choose to watch the movie with your eyes intact then please for the safety of your family and those around you....please have a bucket (suggested 5-10 gallon) nearby to collect your vomit because once you see the acting in this film.....BARF.....BARF.....oh man just the thought of watching this film again makes me wanna blow chunks. THE ONLY THING GOOD about this movie is the special effects.

My suggestions for some fun movies this week:

The Crazies, Law Abiding Citizen, "UP", or perhaps one of the many movies I made with your Mom now available at your local college book shops and at OLLIES outlets where "good stuff is cheap".

4. Topps never fails to amaze me.... A Tommy Bahama 2009 World Series Collectors Edition Shirt was chopped up to make 1,900 serial-numbered Ginter promo cards. Um.....yeah.......let me get right on that one.....YAWN!

5. Corey Haim.....May you find peace in the arms of the Angels. You are home now.

6. Not a fan of Torii Hunter anymore. Poor choice of wording on his part.

7. I still HATE SCOTT BORAS(s)( ).

8. Marion Jones: I wish you all the best in the WNBA. Just play it clean! You served your time and we are a forgiving society but don't do it again.

9. Lenny Dykstra..... From the top of the tree to the bottom of the barrel. Now he 's being sued by his former estate manager/personal assistant who is seeking damages for an incident last May for when Lenny put two hands on her bags and tried to steal "2nd base".

10. I'm really starting to enjoy Caprica on the SyFy channel. It's not quite as good as BSG but seems to be a good fill in for laying out the origins of BSG.

11. Well, it looks like I am building a TOPPS Platinum football set for the kids since my son and daughter had asked if we could try to put one together. Now I just have to find some boxes of 09 Topps Platinum for some decent prices.

12. I say if "Big Ben" Roethlisberger keeps on getting into trouble then perhaps they could draft Tim "the Messiah" Tebow to be a guiding leader for Ben.....HAHAHAHAHA!

Topps Platinum Blaster Box = LOADED

Today I visited the Altoona Target store with my son and daughter in tow. We walked by the card isle and it was Christmas time all over again for these two children of mine. They gazed upon the cards and then I must've heard "Dad can I have this" a million times. I had to whip out a flurry's of "NO's" by the boatload. However after receiving the dreaded, "4 brown eyes stare" from them and then I glanced at a box of cards in my daughter's hand I gave in and said, "yes" to them picking up a blaster box of Topps Platinum. Well for once saying, "yes" paid off and I mean it PAID OFF by the boatloads.

You get 8 packs total per blaster box and one rookie card per pack. Well this must've been one heck of a hot box because what you see here is exactly what we pulled from this box. There is supposed to be one rookie per pack and we pulled 4 James Davis cards, 2 Matthew Stafford cards, and 2 Heyward-Bey cards. Talk about collation issues...where do I begin?

ICHIRO "I'm bringing SEXY BACK"

It's time for another addition of "What were they thinking?". This time we have another TOPPS card that has left us a little puzzled after looking at it and then random thoughts begin to fill the mind:

1. Ichiro was listening to Justin Timberlake in his IPOD before the game and felt like bringing "SEXY BACK" to the plate.

2. Ichiro just finished watching "To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" before playing the game.

3. "I'm gonna bitch slap that silly white thing!"

4. "I'm ICHIRO......BIOTCH!"

5. "Does this bat make me look fat?"

Topps Football .... R.I.P.

Topps ....THE BBB REPORT F = FAIL

Here is the link to the Topps Company Better Business Bureau Report:
http://nepa.app.bbb.org/report/10014615

BBB Rating

Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of F on a scale from A+ to F.
Reasons for this rating include:

* 14 complaints filed against business
* Failure to respond to 5 complaints filed against business.
* 2 complaints filed against business that were not resolved.

Business Contact and Profile
Name: Topps Co.
Phone: (570) 457-6761
Fax: (570) 451-2400
Address: 401 York Ave.
Duryea, PA 18642
File Open Date: April 1995
Type of Business: Mail Order & Catalog Shopping
BBB Accreditation: This company is not a BBB Accredited business.

The BBB has requested basic information from this company. The BBB has not received a response. Without this information, the BBB may not have current information concerning such things as the company's management or its nature of business.

Customer Complaint History

When considering complaint information, please take into account the company's size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.

BBB processed a total of 14 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 14 complaints closed in 36 months, 7 were closed in the last year.
Advertising Issues
Resolved
1 - Company resolved the complaint issues, but not within BBB's timeframe. The Complainant acknowledged acceptance to BBB.

Sales Practice Issues
No Response
1 - Company failed to respond to BBB to resolve or address the complaint issues.

Delivery Issues
Unresolved
1 - Company failed to resolve the complaint issues through BBB voluntary and self-regulatory process.

Customer Service Issues
No Response
1 - Company failed to respond to BBB to resolve or address the complaint issues.

Product Issues
Resolved
2 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to BBB.
Unresolved
1 - Company failed to resolve the complaint issues through BBB voluntary and self-regulatory process.
Administratively Closed
1 - BBB determined the company made a reasonable offer to resolve the issues, but the consumer did not accept the offer.
No Response
3 - Company failed to respond to BBB to resolve or address the complaint issues.

Refund or Exchange Issues
Resolved
2 - Company resolved the complaint issues. The consumer acknowledged acceptance to BBB.
1 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to BBB.