Seeking Redemption 22: A Long-Awaited Panini Mailday

Way back in December of 2014, I pulled a redemption card for a Rookie Signatures autograph of Kawhi Leonard from a box of 2012-13 Panini Basketball. I waited, and waited, and waited. Sometimes I tried to contact someone at Panini about it, but never heard anything back. Some time ago, the card popped up on Panini's list of cards that had been produced, and I saw some of them on eBay, but I never got mine.

Finally, I saw that some people were having success in reaching out to a Twitter account, @PaniniCSM, so I gave that a shot. Nothing. I sent another Tweet. Nothing. Finally, I sent a third Tweet, asking why I saw other people getting responses but no movement on my request. That time they got back to me, and within an hour I'd let them know that I would love to have the Leonard autograph, but if it needed replacement I would like to have something from the Houston Rockets. Pretty soon after that, I got a shipping notification. The package arrived after I left for Utah, so I asked my wife to take a picture of what they sent me.

That there is my first autograph from Houston superstar James Harden. It's a Game Changers autograph from 2013-14 Panini National Treasures Basketball. That's a pretty fancy card, and I am happy with the replacement.

My wife also took a picture of the serial number on the back. This is the base version of the card, numbered # 59 / 60. It took a little bit of doing, but eventually I got in touch with someone from Panini and wound up with a card I am satisfied with.

Seeking Redemption 21: Steven Matz 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic

A couple of months ago, I posted about some group breaks of 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic that I participated in. One of my hits was a redemption card for a Steven Matz Red parallel autograph. I entered the code into the Topps website, and within a few weeks I saw that it had shipped.

Here is the card, locked into the magnetic case with a Clearly Authentic-branded sticker. The Red parallels had a print run of 50 cards made, and I think mine is # 10 / 50. I am not 100% sure, since I didn't make a note of it when I scanned the card, and the scan pictured above isn't all that clear. This card probably isn't worth what I paid for the group break spot, but it's better than getting nothing at all. Matz had a tough 2017, starting and ending the season on the disabled list, with mismanagement and poor performances in between. The Mets appear to be a total circus. I wonder if that will change for 2018?

Lately, Topps has been including bonus cards with redemption shipments to increase goodwill among collectors who have to wait on their redeemed cards to arrive. It's a pretty cool move on that part of the company, and I enjoy seeing what they surprise me with. This time I got a Matt Wieters relic card from 2017 Topps Baseball Series 1. It might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but it's a nice enough card and it was free. I was actually a little surprised to see that Wieters is a four-time All-Star. I thought he'd been a little more star-crossed than that. I was also a little surprised to see that he's 31 years old. I thought he was younger. He didn't have a great year for Washington in 2017, but maybe he'll bounce back.

This redemption didn't take too long to be fulfilled, and it's cool to get a bonus card out of it. I now have only one outstanding redemption, a basketball card from Panini. It's been out there for a couple of years now, but they've never sent it and haven't responded to me when I've asked for a status or replacement. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong trees.

Seeking Redemption 20: WWE Undisputed Autos

I picked up a couple of redemption cards from 2017 Topps WWE Undisputed, mostly just because I like to bid on redemption cards to see if I can score a deal.

I was kind of aiming for Cesaro and Big Cass, but I never wound up getting any of their cards. I ended up with a base autograph of Sami Zayn and a Bronze autograph parallel of Heath Slater. It didn't take too long for both cards to be made, so it was just a few weeks before I got a shipping notification.

Here is the Sami Zayn base autograph. It's numbered # 066 / 199. Zayn is a pretty fun wrestler to watch. He's got a high-energy style. I've seen him live twice in the last year. His entrance music seems to get the crowd pretty hyped up, too.

I'm not that familiar with Heath Slater, but the price was right on this autograph. It is numbered # 38 / 99.

Topps' policy lately has been to include a bonus card with most redemption shipments. In this package I got a couple of relic cards from 2015 Topps WWE Heritage. This first one features Tyler Breeze, one half of the Breezango tag team.

The other bonus card in the package was a relic card of The Miz. These aren't the most exciting relics in the world, but they were bonus cards so I can't really feel bad about them. It's cool that Topps even includes bonus cards in redemption packages.

2017 Topps Clearly Authentic

Collectors seem to like acetate cards and autographed cards, so Topps recently came out with a product that is made up entirely of autographed acetate cards, 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic. There is one encased autograph in each box, and there are twenty boxes in a case. Most cases hold 18 cards from the regular checklist and 2 cards from the Rookie Reprint checklist. The regular checklist is made up of 82 cards of current players on this year's Topps flagship design. The Rookie Reprint checklist contains a mix of retired and current players, but reprints their rookie cards on acetate. I believe all of the Rookie Reprints and their parallels are numbered, while only parallels from the base checklist are numbered. Some of the base cards have photo variations, but I don't know if they are seeded any differently.

I'm a sucker for a card gimmick, so I went out and found the best mix of group break slots I could, trying to get the largest number of possible cards for the least amount of money. I wound up with the Phillies and Reds in one break, and the Phillies and Mets in another break. I got shut out on the Reds in the first break, but I got 4 different Phillies in the case. The only one I didn't get was Maikel Franco. First up is this Jorge Alfaro card. You can see from the scan of the back how transparent the cards are. It's a pretty cool effect, and I think they look better in person because running them through my scanner makes them blurry. It has a hard time knowing what to focus on with encased cards.

The next card I got was this Roman Quinn horizontal shot. My only real complaint about this set is that some of the autographs are faint or streaky. I think Quinn's autograph is the worst of the bunch I picked up in that regard. 

Next up out of the case was Jake Thompson. He's been bounced back and forth between the MLB and AAA levels all season, and he's had some struggles. As far as I can tell, though, he's still pretty young and has time to figure things out.

The last card for me out of that case was Aaron Nola, a pretty good pitcher for the rebuilding team. I think he has a cool signature, even if I can't see his name in it. It kind of looks to me like his signature says 'tawns.' It was pretty nice to get four cards out of a 20-card case. It would have been nice to pull a parallel or a Reds card, but I can't complain too much after getting 20% of the cards in the case from one of the cheapest slots in the break. 

In the other case, I had the Phillies and the Mets. I didn't pull any Phillies, and I didn't get any Mets until the very last card in the break. I got this redemption card for a Red parallel of Steven Matz. Matz has had a rough year, starting the season on the DL, having a rough run of games, and then going back on the DL with a season-ending elbow injury. I think that if I were a pitcher, I'd be running far away from the Mets. The Red parallels are numbered # / 50. I'll revisit this one when/if Topps successfully acquires the signed card.

For some reason I also bid on and won this Kenta Maeda Red parallel on eBay. I don't collect the Dodgers and I don't have a Maeda collection, but I went out and got this card. I must have been caught up in trying to gather some cards from the set, and threw out some bids on a bunch of auctions that were closing. This one is numbered # 43 / 50. The signature is a little faint on this one, but it's a pretty cool card.

And that's my foray into 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic. I don't anticipate chasing down much more of this product, but you never know what will happen.

Seeking Redemption 19: A Framed Mini with No Frame

Way back in early November of 2013 I won a box of 2013 Topps Archives Baseball cards at my local card shop's anniversary party. In that box I pulled a redemption card for a 2013 Topps Archives Framed 1973 Mini Auto of Frank Robinson. Yesterday it was finally delivered to my house, after nearly three years of waiting.

In the envelope was that letter, letting me know that Topps would not be putting frames on the Frank Robinson Framed Mini Auto, so I shouldn't be expecting that. They also let me know that they were including a bonus card because I had waited so long on this redemption.

Here's what the card looks like. It's pretty cool, I guess, although Robinson kind of ran out of room there at the end of his signature. The card is hand-numbered # 24 / 25. It's a weird size, too. It's smaller than a regular mini card, but bigger than a tobacco-size mini. I think this card would look a lot nicer in a frame. I feel like I should devote more words to this card since I waited so long for it, but I don't really have much else to say. I do like the 1973 Topps card design. At one point I started a 1973 Topps set build, but didn't get much further than buying one card lot before I moved on to other things.

Here is the bonus card that Topps included in the envelope. It's a relic card of Carlos Gonzalez from 2014 Topps Mini Baseball. It's an okay card, and the relic swatch at least has a pinstripe in it to keep it from being another plain white piece of cloth.

So that's the end of that redemption journey. I've currently only got one redemption outstanding now, a Kawhi Leonard autograph from Panini that I've had in the system for nearly three years now. The card was actually made a couple of months ago, but I guess they only sent some of them out. I wasn't one of the lucky few who received their copy of the card.

Seeking Redemption 18: Quick Turnaround

I posted just about a month ago that I had received a couple of Topps redemption cards from group breaks. Very shortly after I posted that I saw that both had gone live on Topps' weekly(ish) redemption report. A while after that both cards I was waiting on shipped out. That leaves me with only two outstanding redemptions, with one from Topps and one from Panini. The Topps card is a Frank Robinson # / 10 framed autograph from 2013 Topps Archives Baseball, and the Panini card is a Rookie Signatures autograph of Kawhi Leonard from 2012-13 Panini. I tried to get the Frank Robinson autograph substituted a couple of months ago, but I was told it was produced and would ship out 'soon.' The Leonard autograph was announced by Panini as being live a couple of weeks ago, but so far it hasn't shipped out.

The first card in the package from Topps was this Donald Cerrone base autograph from 2016 Topps UFC Knockout. When I saw that it was numbered # 42 / 49 I thought maybe they'd sent me a parallel or something, but the checklist just says that base autographs are numbered to # / 249 or less. It was a nice surprise to have the print run on this one be so low. In this picture Cerrone looks a lot like a guy in my National Guard unit. It makes me laugh a little because the guy I know always seems a little dazed, like he's been hit in the head a couple times too many.

This is the card I was really looking forward to receiving. It's a Dual Autographed Fight Mat Relic of Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, also from 2016 Topps UFC Knockout. In the past these cards have been one-sided, with both fighters appearing on the same side of the card, but this year's cards stretch out a bit and give each fighter a whole side to themselves. This copy is numbered # 07 / 10. I should probably put it up on eBay, but I don't know yet if I'll be able to bring myself to do it. I'm kind of a Faber fan, although Cruz whupped his butt for five rounds last weekend in their third (and probably final) fight against each other last weekend. This is a pretty cool card. My only issues with it are that Cruz didn't manage to stay on the sticker with his autograph and there is a ding in the corner closest to Faber's head. Outside of that this is an awesome card and easily the best UFC card in my collection to date.

Seeking Redemption 17: Some Big Hits from 2016 Topps UFC Knockout

Although I am not as active as I was earlier in the year, I still participate in the UFC breaks over at Team Breaks. I did pick up a fair number of spots in late March and early April when they were breaking 2016 Topps UFC Knockout. I had a couple of decent hits for various fighter collections that I will show off eventually, but today I am showing a couple of redemption cards I picked up during that time frame.

The first one is a base autograph of Donald Cerrone. I think I actually grabbed the Donald Cerrone spot in a Pick Your Fighter break. I don't necessarily collect Cerrone cards, but I think in that particular set of breaks the fighters I usually buy were taken and I took a chance on a few spots for fighters who seemed to have a lot of hits in the product. I happened to get lucky in this case and get a Cerrone autograph.

The other card here is a pretty big hit. It's a Dominick Cruz / Urijah Faber Dual Autographed Fight Mat Relic card. I think these are serially-numbered to # / 10, so they're a pretty rare hit. I believe I got this one from a Random Weight Class break. When it was pulled back in early April there were a couple on eBay that I think went in the $50-60 range. Another copy sold a couple of days ago for around $110. I still haven't decided if I will keep it once I receive the card. I kind of follow Urijah Faber, but I also wouldn't say no to $110. That's half a master set of Heritage baseball.

Both of these cards were reported as live in the latest Topps redemption update, so I am hoping it won't be too long before they are marked as shipped. I bumped them up in the posting queue to make sure I got this post up before I received the actual cards in the mail. I'm still waiting on a Frank Robinson autograph from 2013 Topps Archives Baseball. During my last exchange with Topps Customer Service they told me that card was produced and should ship soon, but I haven't seen any updates confirming that. I know there have been a few redemption updates announcing that other Frank Robinson autographs are live, but maybe mine is taking a while because it's an on-card signature which then has to be mounted in a frame. Anyway, I am looking forward to getting these redemptions filled soon.

Seeking Redemption 16: The Replacement Pt. 2 (Topps Makes Good)

In February I posted about a disappointing replacement that Topps had sent me for an outstanding redemption I had from 2013 Topps Archives Baseball that probably wasn't going to be produced. After thinking it over and discussing it in the comments of that blog post I submitted a follow-on ticket to Topps Customer Support, outlining my reasoning and asking what they could do for me. I think I was able to make my case civilly, and I hope it read that way on the other end.

After about a week I got a message back saying that Topps had miscalculated the value on the original transaction and that they would be sending me a replacement card with a book value of $40. A couple of weeks after that a package showed up in the mail with the following card enclosed:

It's a 2013 Topps Museum Collection Momentous Materials Jumbo Relic Autograph card of Josh Hamilton. Cardboard Connection says that these fell one per case in Museum Collection, and this copy is numbered # 09 / 10. These are not a frequent item that pops up for sale, but the most recent eBay sales for similar items have been in the $25-30 range, which in my opinion lines up favorably with a book valuation of $40. Hamilton isn't a guy I really collect, but I can't complain about getting a case hit from Museum Collection in exchange for my case hit redemption from Topps Archives.

Combining this with the original card they sent me makes up for the original value of my redemption card and the frustration I experienced with the transaction, so I am considering things even at this point. I am satisfied and I think that Topps customer service came through and did right by me in the end. I'll post a link from my original post to this one so that future readers of that post can easily find out what happened.

Seeking Redemption 15: The Replacement

edit 3/5/2016: Topps has resolved this issue to my satisfaction. You can read about it here.

Way back in 2013 or maybe early 2014 I pulled a redemption card from 2013 Topps Archives for a Real Heavy Metal Autograph of Winger/Whitesnake guitarist Reb Beach. These were different from the regular Heavy Metal autographs in that the cards were to be made of metal and limited to a print run of 25 copies. So, a pretty cool card. After a couple of years of waiting I decided that the card probably wasn't going to be made, so I requested a replacement from Topps through their customer service e-mail address. That led to a ticket being opened and they came back with a valuation of $20-25 on the card. They won't tell you which card they are sending as a replacement, just that it will come from the same sport as the original redemption. I accepted the $20-25 value and this is what I got in my envelope from Topps:

It's a 2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorite autograph of Bob Welch. I don't have anything against Mr. Welch, but since November this card has sold 8 times on eBay for an average of about $10.80. That is significantly less than the value Topps quoted me, and this card just plain doesn't match up. Topps made it pretty easy for me to compare the two cards because they both hail from the same product. Going back to the pack odds in 2013 Archives, the Fan Favorites Autographs were a 1:14 pack pull while the Real Heavy Metal Autographs fell at 1:2,250 pack odds.

In the end it is just cardboard and ink (or Real Heavy Metal and ink), but I can't help being disappointed that Topps replaced a pretty rare and cool hit with the most basic hit in the product. I wasn't expecting the moon, but I was hoping for something in the same realm of rarity as the card I pulled the redemption for.

2014 Topps Stadium Club Box Break - A Case Hit and a Redemption Card

I am trying to clear out my folder of card scans, and there is some old stuff in there. This is a box of 2014 Topps Stadium Club that I opened last year, probably in November or December. I vaguely remember some of the cards in this box.

These were the eight most interesting horizontal base cards I found in the box. Actually, the Hyun-Jin Ryu and Jeff Samardzija cards probably weren't the most interesting in the box. They are (kind of) PC guys for me. I like that Todd Helton farewell card. Tim Lincecum looks a lot like Mario's brother Luigi, and also like a guy I knew in one of my Army units. I don't remember that guy's name, but I remember he was kind of a funny dude. Adam Eaton got his own post a while back, and I think Jose Bautista did too (I guess Bautista had to share his post with three other guys).

These Rainbow Foil parallels came one per mini-box, or three per Hobby box. This is kind of a tragic group, as both Oscar Taveras (DUI car wreck) and Tony Gwynn (cancer) died during 2014.

That Gold Victor Martinez is a one-per-box parallel, and the Matt Carpenter Members Only card is a one-per-case hit. Martinez is having a terrible season after a massive 2014. Some people (like me) drafted him in fantasy baseball this year and are also having very bad years. Matt Carpenter is having a very good year for the Cardinals, helping to fill the void left by several key injuries. The Cardinals have signed some dark pact that keeps them consistently winning games from year to year.

These are all of the inserts that fall one per Hobby box. My Triumvirate card is Masahiro Tanaka, which was a pretty good pull at the time. He's been pretty good this year, too, but the big crop of hot rookies this season has kind of pushed him and Jose Abreu to the back burner as far as hype is concerned. Jose Fernandez is my Beam Team insert. Speedster Billy Hamilton is my Future Stars card. He's on the DL right now. Imagine how many bases he would steal if he got on base a little more. My favorite of this bunch is the Randy Johnson Legends die-cut.

These Field Access inserts come one per mini-box. If I remember right, that Randy Johnson card is a parallel insert numbered out of # / 99. I guess I could go look it up, but I'd have to dig through some boxes to find it and I don't want to. McCutchen, Jeter, and Mays are all good pulls, too, but I like the Johnson card best. Update: I did not remember correctly. In looking through my scans I found the actual Randy Johnson parallel I pulled in the photos for another box break. This one is probably the base version. I still like it.

Each box of Stadium Club promised three autographs, but the relatively weak checklist helped boxes to stay affordable for people like me. There were sales last year where you could get boxes for less than 50% of the original MSRP. One of my autographs was a redemption for a Chris Owings base autograph. James Jones has been in the minors for most of 2015. Yangervis Solarte has been toiling away with pretty good success for the Padres this year. Unfortunately for his collecting value, he is having success with the Padres and not the Yankees. Chris Owing has been playing all season for the Diamondbacks, but he hasn't found a lot of success with a negative WAR so far this season.

Sometime between then and now the redemption was filled and I got this card in the mail, signed by Owings with a nice big pair of initials. Overall this was a pretty good box as I pulled a case hit with the Matt Carpenter parallel and a couple of nice Randy Johnson inserts.