Topps redemptions are a fucking joke

From this point on, I’m selling each and every Topps redemption card that I get my hands on.  The ridiculousness that I’ve endured regarding 2009 Finest redemptions is beyond asinine.

I purchased my box of 2009 Finest 2 addresses ago which is very relevant to this story.  That was the address that I entered when I redeemed these cards.  I waited and waited and waited and nothing arrived.

Eventually, two of the six total redemptions that I was waiting for from Topps arrived.  One was a Finest redemption and one was a 2009 Red Hot Rookie.  Why would just one Finest card show up when all but the Hanson auto were sent out at the same time?  I’ve got no clue so I went back to waiting and waiting.

Getting sick of waiting, I contacted Topps Customer Support who I normally have good luck with.  They researched and found out that the other cards were shipped to a different address.  Why would some of the cards be sent to one address and others to a different address?  Again, I’ve got no clue.

So, one card trickled in with one of those “Please notify sender of your new address” stickers on it and another was re-sent from Topps.  I was still one card short and am still trying to have Topps send that card to me again.  That card is not the reason why I am writing this post though.

I’ve been obsessively following the progress of my Tommy Hanson autographed redemption ever since Topps tweeted about Hanson coming in to sign stuff.  It was marked shipped with a tracking number and so I checked it on an almost daily basis and waited and waited and waited.  Three weeks later, some tracking information finally arrived and… the card was sent to the wrong address.  Are you kidding me?  At this point my new address has been on file with Topps/Tristar Fulfillment for 6 months.  There’s no excuse for this.

Since the cards are now out in the wild, I decide to take a quick look on eBay so I’ll at least have an idea of what might someday magically appear in my mailbox.  So, I stumbled across this eBay auction.  A sticker auto!  A STICKER AUTO!  Are you fucking kidding me?  I’ve been waiting close to a year for this card and it’s a sticker auto.  What a joke that is.  There’s on-card autos in 2009 Topps Chrome, but this redemption card that was produced after that card is a sticker.

Not only is it a sticker, but it is a sticker stuck on an ugly card.  The area on the card is too small for the sticker and it ends up looking horrible.  Take a look at the completed auctions for this card and you’ll see some piss poor sticker placement.  There are crooked stickers.  Stickers that are partially covering the Finest logo on the card.  Stickers with off-center stickers.  I think I would have gotten better results if I had my four year old daughter put the stickers on these things.  So disappointed.

The only saving grace of this whole thing is that the card is selling for a decent price on eBay.  So, once the card comes in it is going to go right up on eBay and get the heck out of my collection.  I’ve got no tolerance for abominations such as this.  I’m also open to trade offers.  Anyone out there have a 1992 Fleer Update set or a really nice card of someone that I collect that you’d like to transform into this card?  Drop me a line and let me know.  I’d love to salvage something out of this fiasco.

Topps, if by any chance you end up reading this.  Please, for the love of god, cut way down on the number of redemption cards that you use.  The rookie redemptions rarely add any value to a set because by the time the cards are redeemed these rookies have a bunch of other cards that people are looking for instead.  I can see issuing a redemption card if it is for something like a dual signed card that you got signed by one player, but couldn’t hook up with the second player in time for the release, but issuing redemption cards for cards you don’t know if you’ll be able to get signed or for cards that you don’t plan on producing for another 6 months isn’t any good.  Just focus on giving those players great cards in an upcoming card instead.  Most importantly, redemption cards lead to frustration and wasted space in packs when you go and open older boxes.  It’s not the fault of the purchaser that you couldn’t get your cards done in time, but they have to suffer by getting useless, expired redemption cards in their boxes.  Hopefully you can keep redemptions out of Chicle and Ginter or else I think I’m done with Topps products for the year.

On a related note, these same Finest cards led to a terrible eBay experience as well.  Since these cards sell for next to nothing these days, I decided that I’d try and put together the set.  So, I found one sell on eBay that had three of the cards listed.  I asked if he combined shipping and he replied that he did.  I won three of the cards for .99¢ and one other card for $1.29.  The seller didn’t seem happy about that since no matter how many times I contacted him, he wouldn’t send me an invoice with the combined shipping.  I waited two weeks before leaving him negative feedback as directed by eBay.  I find it strange that they have non-paying bidder strikes, but not non-selling strikes.  That’s eBay for you.  I’ll end this tangent before it takes on a life of its own.

Sorry for the bitch session.  I plan to follow this up tonight with some much better content.  Who knows, maybe someone will benefit from this by adding a Tommy Hanson card to their collection.

Trading Block: Non-sports Trade Bait

I’m not quite sure why I decided to touch this stuff, but I did.  There are some decent cards to pull, but it seems like there’s a lot more junk than quality stuff.  Stupid, spur-of-the-moment decisions.  If anyone is interested in any of these uncirculated autos, drop me a line and we’ll work something out.

Pictured is Peter Wingfield as Methos from Highlander, Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb from Firefly, Patrick Flueger as Shaun Farrell from The 4400 and Dan Butler as Rev. Sorenson from Supernatural.

An update

Sorry for the delay in the last part of the contest.  I held it up a little bit because two people still hadn’t replied, but then my daughter got sick on my day off, there was more rain and flooding and my free time has all but disappeared.  I’ve got Friday off before what will be a very busy Saturday and hope to get caught up on a lot of things that day.

I finally did some research and found out how simple it is to schedule posts with Windows Live Writer.  So, I’m going to take advantage of that in the future.

Thanks to everyone for reading.  I fit this in when I can around work and family.  It’s one more way to enjoy my cards since collecting on a budget limits the amount and type of cards that I can add to my collection.

I’ve got box breaks, trades, purchases, room updates and all kinds of other stuff coming.  I want to continue to celebrate the fun parts of the hobby and collecting in general.

Box Break: 2010 Rittenhouse Lost Seasons 1 Thru 5

Rittenhouse is the second company to have the Lost license with the first being Inkworks.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Inkworks products as the boxes seemed too expensive to me for what you got.  Rittenhouse took over the license and they seem to have gotten things right.  For just about the same price per box, you get three autographs instead of just one and there aren’t any redemption cards.

Rittenhouse as a company puzzles the heck out of me.  They don’t take advantage of new media at all.  They barely have a website.  You won’t find Rittenhouse Archives or Scifihobby.com on Twitter or Facebook.  You won’t find any sponsored breaks to check out before you buy.  The company does have a rewards program, but the amount of points needed to get any of the rewards are ridiculous.  You have to buy 6 boxes and some loose packs just to qualify for one rewards.  They may as well not even have the program since it’ll really only benefit dealers and case breakers.  Just put that money towards some nice box toppers and you’re all set.  That’ll save the postage on mailing in the wrappers and reward normal collectors.

Rittenhouse makes some high quality cards.  They aren’t glossy, but once you’ve held them in your hands and looked at them, you won’t mind at all.  The pictures look great on the sturdy, bright white card stock.  The fact that there’s no gloss makes them perfect for autographs.  I wish that I had the Hurley card pictured above when I sent my autograph request to Jorge Garcia because I would love to have this card signed and in my collection.

The set consists of 108 cards (kudos Rittenhouse for that little detail) with one card for every episode of the first 5 seasons.  Header cards for each season that double as checklists fill out the rest of the set.  This set makes me wish that Rittenhouse had this license from the beginning and had done 108-card sets of each season as they aired.  Those sets would have been beautiful.

There are insert card for another ABC show to be found in packs.  While I am watching FlashForward, I wouldn’t be extremely upset if it were to be cancelled.  It has taken what could be a very interesting concept and gone almost nowhere with it.  It started off well, but the hiatus killed it and it hasn’t regained the momentum since coming back.  I would have much rather seen promo cards for another show that J.J. Abrams helped create and that’s Fringe.  That’s quickly become one of my favorite shows and I look forward to seeing what ridiculousness Walter Bishop is going to do and see each week.

There are some fun inserts to be found in these packs.  There’s a six card set of the Oceanic Six printed on acetate with clear sections.  It looks like there’s a picture of the character off of the island in color with a picture of them on the island ghosted in the background.

The other two cards pictured here are lenticular cards.  They really don’t scan well, but they look good in person.

The middle card pictured here is of the Smoke Monster.  This season, the Smoke Monster aka The Man in Black is spending most of his time in the form of John Locke.  Popular theory says that in the past the Smoke Monster took on various forms such as Christian Sheppard, Dave and possibly even a black horse.  Hopefully they’ll explain why it could do that then, but is unable to now.

The bottom card shows Hurley’s Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack restaurant as it is struck by a meteor and destroyed.  The explosion killed reporter Tricia Tanaka who was covering the grand opening.  This was just another example of the terrible luck that followed Hurley around off of the island after winning the lottery with the cursed numbers muttered repeatedly by another patient in the mental hospital Hurley spent time in.

Rittenhouse jumps aboard the painted card bandwagon with their own insert set.  These cards would definitely appeal to fans of Topps Gallery, Turkey Red or Upper Deck Masterpieces.

You won’t find any gloss on these cards either and these would be beautiful cards to get signed.  This is a set that I could definitely see myself tracking down if some of them show up online at a decent price.

The theme for my box seemed to be deceased characters as three of the four characters are no longer on the show.  Shannon was shot by Ana Lucia.  Boone died after being crushed by a plane while tagging along with Locke.  Juliet died due to injuries suffered while detonating a hydrogen bomb back in the 70s.

Enough about these cards though.  The main reason that people buy these boxes is for the autographs.  Who did I pull?  Let’s find out…

My first autograph card is of Patrick Fischler as Phil.  Phil was a member of the Dharma Initiative back in the 70s.  I can’t say that I was too impressed with this autograph, but these autograph cards are great.

All of the autographs are on-card and there’s a nice, big, white area for the actors and actresses to sign in.  The front of the cards are not glossy, but the backs of the cards are.  I like this decision because it prevents things like eBay idiots adding a “1/1” notation to a card and then trying to find a sucker to buy it.

Before I go any further, I have to warn you not to buy these Lost cards by the pack.  These packs are extremely searchable.  In my box, packs without an insert contained 6 cards and packs with an insert only contained 5.  You might not be able to tell the difference by holding them or looking at them, but anyone with a caliper could easily tell the difference.

My next autograph was of Andrea Roth as Harper Stanhope in “The Other Woman.”  They had to include the episode title for this autograph card because otherwise no one would have any clue who this character was.  She appeared in one episode as Juliet’s therapist

It’s nice to see that crappy autographs aren’t confined to athletes.  Actors and actresses can have terrible autographs as well.  Seriously, what the heck is that supposed to be?  Was she drawing a picture?  Getting an autograph of a minor character is even more disappointing when the autograph looks like this.

So, I had pulled two out of my three autographs and wasn’t feeling all that great about the box.  The autograph cards are easy to pick out when you open a pick due to the borderless design.  So, when I saw the next borderless card I slid the card above it aside slowly.  I saw a cursive T and then a printed T and then a familiar bald head.

Terry O’Quinn autograph!  My second favorite character on the show behind Hurley.  This card totally saved the box in my opinion as I think this is the best autograph there is to pull out of the box.

This set has a great design and the insert sets give you a little bit of variety as you open the packs.  I got a complete set out of my box which should always be the case with a non-sports box.

You can’t beat the value since you get a handful of inserts, a complete set and three autographs per box.  Even if you get three of the lesser autographs the box is worth it.  If you pull one of the bigger stars, they go for close to the cost of a box.  This Terry O’Quinn has sold on eBay from anywhere between $35 and $50, but this one won’t be making it’s way to eBay as it will find a permanent spot in my collection.

I would give this set an A- just because the autograph checklist is a little weak and you could very possibly get three clunkers who have each only been in one episode of the show.  The set itself is beautiful and the inserts add a lot of fun.  I have no choice but to give my box an A+ for a grade.  The only way that it could have been better was if I had pulled O’Quinn, Michael Emerson and Nestor Carbonell in the same box.

Technorati Tags: Lost,Rittenhouse Archives,Terry O'Quinn

Panini Adrenalyn: The Game

I’ve got to toss out a couple of disclaimers before I start this part of my Panini Adrenalyn review.  First off, this game is designed for kids ages 6-11.  It’s been a long time since I fell in that age range.  (Paul Pierce and David Ortiz could tell you how old I am.)  Also, I spent a little over a year working at an online WWE collectible card game.  I picked up a little bit about game design during my time there just from sitting in on the design meetings.  So, that being said, here we go.

Each Adrenalyn card has two ratings on it.  There’s an offensive rating and a defensive rating.  There’s also a superstar rating, but that’s only used to settle ties.  The cards are nice and simple for younger kids.  If your offensive player’s stat is higher than the defensive player’s rating then you score two points.  If you selected one of the other player’s guards then the shot counts for three points.  You play your starting five in the first and third quarters and your bench in the second and fourth.  You can switch players from one to the other at halftime if you’d like.  I think that’s all of the rules.  It’s a slightly more complicated, better looking version of War.

That leads to my main beef with the game.  There’s no limit to the cards that you can play with.  Unlike MLB Showdown which used a point system and had a cap for your team, there’s nothing stopping you from playing with the 10 best Adrenalyn cards in the game and dominating.  I’ve never been a fan of games that favor deep pockets over strategies.  I understand that this game is being kept simple for kids, but if one friend ends up with more of the big stars or Ultimate Signature cards then the rest of their friends aren’t going to have fun anymore.  Limiting the number of superstar points you can use on a team or something like that which brought a little more strategy into the game would have been cool.  Right now this is a 300 card base set where the majority of the card would never be used.  That wouldn’t be the case if there was some sort of “salary” for the players.

Each card has a code on the back so that you can also use it in the online version of the game.  The online game is still in Beta testing and there are still bugs that pop up.  The website also allows you to trade cards and will eventually reward player as they accumulate points by playing games and entering codes.

My daughter is too young to really get into the game.  She did have fun opening the packs that we got at the Basketball Hall of Fame.  We just used the first number of each card to see who won since she doesn’t know all of the numbers up to 100 yet.  While we were playing, she declared that '”if I get a Big Baby card then I win!”  We didn’t get a Big Baby card, but we did have fun.

You Make the Call

I'm still waiting to hear from some people in regards to the contest. If I'm not contacted by the winners by the end of the week, I'll have to go to the back-up plan which will most likely involve the people who ended up second on the list.

TNA 2010: The New Era

TRISTAR will be releasing their next TNA set on April 28th and it looks like they’ve got a big winner here.  They were already doing a good job with the TNA sets and it looks like the quality continues to improve while the TNA roster gets better by leaps and bounds.  In fact, this past weekend I ordered my very first TNA Pay Per View and was very happy with what I saw.  The Ultimate X match featuring the Motor City Machine Guns and Generation ME was easily the match of the year so far in any federation.

One of the big selling points for this set is that there are over 30 different Hulk Hogan cards available.  This includes the base cards, relic cards, autograph cards, autographed relic cards and an Obak insert.  This set definitely has Hulkamania.

The base cards look great with excellent photography.  I count 11 cards in the base set with Hulk Hogan’s name on them so if you are a fan of the Hulkster then this is the set for you.  There’s a lot more than that though.  This set has content as recent as TNA’s big move to Monday night which included the return to wrestling of “Mr. Monday Night,” Rob Van Dam.  That’s a huge coup for TNA as the WWE had been trying to lure RVD back for a while now.  He did rejoin them for one night, but that would be it.  Jeff Hardy’s first TNA card is in this set as well with a picture from the Monday Night Special where he made a brief appearance.  Some other notable new additions are Scott Hall and Syxx-Pac, Shannon Moore, Mr. Anderson, Generation Me, The Pope, Desmond Wolfe and THE Brian Kendrick.

The two per box Obak cards should be very popular.  I loved the Obak set and can’t wait for these cards.  Hopefully they don’t prove to be too popular since this is a set that I’ll want to chase.

Each box contains one memorabilia card numbered to 1, 25, 50 or 199.  There aren’t any bums in the relic set.  The single relic set includes Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Sting, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Mr. Anderson and Syxx-Pac.  There’s a dual relic card of Beer Money Inc.  Triple relic cards feature three Hogan swatches; Hogan, Flair and Sting (pictured) or the members of The Beautiful People.

Who wouldn’t love pulling a Hulk Hogan autograph out of one of these boxes?  Autographed cards are numbered to 1, 5, 25 or 50.  There are single signed cards of just about every member of the TNA roster.  Some of the highlights are Hogan, Sting, Angle, Kevin Nash, AJ Styles, RVD, Samoa Joe, Velvet Sky, Christy Hemme, Daniels, Daffney, Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair.

There are some nice dual autographed cards highlighting business partners such as Hogan and Dixie Carter, allies like Hogan and Abyss or bitter enemies like Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson.  The Hogan/Angle and Hogan/Flair cards should be two of the more sought after cards from this set.

There are also triple signed cards as well.  There are four different cards with one featuring former nWo members Hogan, Nash and Syxx-Pac another with the current members of The Beautiful People, the third features The British Invasion and the last one features some of the more popular ladies of TNA (Tara, Christy Hemme and Traci Brooks).

Last, but certainly not least are the quad signed cards.  There are five different cards including the one pictured here that Beckett called the greatest wrestling card ever produced.  I think I’ve got to agree.

The other quads feature the current members of The Beautiful People along with former member Angelina Love.  The Hogan/Jarrett/Angle/Foley card should be popular as well, but not as popular as the pictured card.  There’s a card of TNA Knockouts Taylor Wilde, Sarita, Hamada and Awesome Kong and the final quad is of Hulk Hogan, Abyss, Ric Flair and AJ Styles who have been the subject of many main events lately.

There are 6 different single event-used, autographed cards.  Along with the pictures Ric Flair, you can also pull Hulk Hogan, Mick Foley, Sting, AJ Styles and Velvet Sky.  No bums there and these cards look great.

You can find the checklist and more details about the set on the official website.  Thanks to the generosity of TRISTAR, you can expect to see a preview of the set right here on the blog close to the release day.

Technorati Tags: TNA Wrestling,Hulk Hogan,Ric Flair,TRISTAR,new release information,Jeff Hardy,RVD,Rob Van Dam

Panini Adrenalyn: The Cards

For the second part of my Adrenalyn report, I’m going to look at the card themselves strictly in a collectible point of view.

To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of too many of Panini’s basketball releases.  Normally, I’d spend a decent amount on Topps and Upper Deck basketball, but I didn’t spend a thing on Panini basketball until the flagship set came out.  I like the Adrenalyn cards a lot and they were my favorite cards from Panini (until Studio was released).

The design is a little busy, but these are cards designed for kids from ages 6-11 so that’s understandable.  The cards don’t go overboard though.  There’s a nice, big picture of the player right in the middle of the card with a ghosted head shot of the player in the background.  The player ratings aren’t obtrusive and blend into the overall design of the card.

The only other difference that you’ll see in the design of the base cards is in the rookie cards which have the word “rookie” vertically, reading top to bottom in the background.  From what I’ve seen, the rookies don’t rate all that well in the game so those were definitely added to appeal to collectors.

Back when the game was popular, foil inserts from Wizards of the Coast’s MLB Showdown were fairly popular with collectors.  Cards from recent games such as Topps Attax and Adrenalyn haven’t caught on with collectors.  It’s a shame that’s not the case with Adrenalyn because they’re nice looking cards and there are some nice chase cards as well.  What chase cards, you may ask.  Well, I’m glad that you did.

The most common inserts fall one in every other pack and are called “Special Cards.”  Two players from each team get this treatment.  The cards are printed on rainbow foil with holographic gold foil stamping on the player’s name.  These cards have increased stats compared to the player’s base card.

You can’t really see the rainbow foil in this scan, but it’s there.  These cards look very nice in person and the rainbow reflection lets your opponent know that he’s in trouble when you turn that card over.

“Extra Cards” fall one in every eight packs.  One player from each team gets this special treatment.  The cards are printed on metalized foil with micro-etching.  The etching is in the design of a swirl behind the player with an embossed NBA logo floating behind he player along with holographic gold foil on the player name.  These cards also have increased stats.

The next level of card is “Extra Signature Cards” and those also fall one in every 8 packs.  These cards look the same as the “Special Cards” with the addition of a foil printed signature on the front of the card.  You can find one player from each team done in this style with increased stats.

The final insert type is “Ultimate Cards” and those fall one in every 23 packs.  These cards look like the “Extra Cards” with the addition of holographic gold foil signatures and “unbeatable stats.”  These cards are really nice looking and are tough to find even when you consider that these packs only cost a dollar a piece.

All things considered, I like this set a lot.  I don’t think I’ll play the game all that often, but the dollar price tag makes it easy to pick up a handful of packs whenever you see them available.  I’m definitely going to track down the 10 Celtics base cards and 5 inserts for my collection.

Contest Results

I’ll keep updating this post with the results as I finish off the randomizations.  There’s a bit of typing for each of those so they might take a while.  If you are listed as a winner, please contact me with your first and second (and even a third if you’d like) choices from the prize pool.

Contest 1: Guess the Number

I guess I made the range of numbers to guess from a little large, but there was a reason for that.  I wanted to try and give people a chance to figure out the number that I had selected.  I was always a big fan of the contests that The Mojo Hand where there was some brain work involved and that’s what I was trying to do here.

I’m a huge fan of the TV show Lost and the number 108 is big in the mythology of that show.  That’s why the contest was to select a number from 1 – 108.  The number that I selected had to do with the Lost cast member who has posted in this bog, Jorge Garcia.  I won’t go into spoilers in case someone is behind in their viewing, but the nature of the numbers has been revealed this season and the number 8 from “The List” of numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) is associated with Garcia’s character, Hugo Reyes.  So, the number to guess was number 8.  The only problem is that no one guessed that number.  So, in an executive decision, I’m going to give entries to the two people who bookended the number.  Drew guessed 7 (which was also later guessed by BA Benny on the second guess post) and SamL guessed 9.  Congratulations, you are the first two winners.  Start thinking of your choices.

Contest 2: Random Comment

There were 31 entrants. They were all entered into Random.org and randomized once, I positioned my mouse, turned off the monitor and clicked the randomize button three more times before turning my monitor back on.  This is what I saw:

 
Congratulations FanOfReds!  You are the third entrant into the prize pool.  Let me know which prizes you are interested in.

Contest 3: Secret Entry

The means for entering this part of the contest wasn’t exactly secret, but I didn’t spell it out in the contest instructions either.  The key was the line “it shouldn’t be too difficult to follow.”  All of the people following this blog will be entered into Random.org, randomized three times just like in the previous part of the contest and out will come a winner.  After removing my wife, there were 36 entrants (in spite of the fact that Blogger says I have 38 followers, there are only 37 that show up.)  Drum roll please…

Congratulations Wax Wombat!  You are the 4th entrant into the prize pool.  Let me know your selections.

Contest 4: Site Pimping

The final contest carries the best odds of winning for those who entered.  I know that publicizing a contest seems to be the last thing that you want to do at times since it means more entries and lessens the chance of you winning, but in helping the site’s readership you help guarantee that there will be future contests such as this one.  So, thank you to those who promoted these contests.  There were 10 of you and after randomizing one final time…

Congratulations handcollated!  You are the 5th and final entrant into the prize pool.

That’s all for this one folks.  Thanks to everyone who entered.  As I dig through the cards that I’ve had in storage and if there’s any future sponsorship, I hope to have many more future contests.  I hope this one was fun for those who participated.  I know that I had fun reading the random comments in the random comment entry thread.

Guess again

Since it is early Saturday morning and no one has yet to guess the secret number, I’m going to let everyone who has guessed take a second guess.  I’ll also give you a couple of hints as to how I selected the number.  First off, look at the range of numbers that I had people pick from.  The high number in that range in significant.  How is it significant?  That number, in relation to a recent brush with fame I had on the blog, is the key to the secret number.

Make sure to make your guesses back on the original post and remember to be logged in.

Good luck!