After my last round of dealing with Topps on my redemption card submissions i will NEVER again make a submission. All of my redemption cards will be sold as redemptions because Topps is so full of it.
They sent my autos to me in October 2017 via Fed Ex but of course there was no warning they were coming and required a signature so I received a door tag that they would be delivered the next day. The next day I got up and was waiting for them when the truck stopped outside my house, sat there for 5 minutes and then drove off. I contacted Fed Ex and was told they must have been put on another truck that would come later that day. I waited until much later that day and when nothing happened called again and Fed Ex put a trace on the package. Long Story short - the package wound up being lost and never showed up in their system again. It took a month for this to finally be confirmed to Fed Ex and Topps Satisfaction and the claim was processed for $450 ( a combination of Beckett pricing or Ebay if there was no Beckett pricing). Two of the cards were for my PC and the rest were going to be sold, so I figured I would just be happy with the $450 insurance money. However Topps finally informed me that they get that money and I would get replacement cards. Although not thrilled I was okay since I still really wanted those 2 cards only to be told that since my redemptions had been filled and delivered (they consider lost to be delivered because it left their facility) I would have to accept replacement cards from their inventory, which of course only consisted of leftovers from 2016 and before. They asked for a list of players who I might be interested in and i gave them a list of 25 names and the response was they had none of those so I would have to try again.
After months of useless going back and forth where they were trying to only give me cards that were overpriced in Beckett while selling or 20-25% of that amount we came up with a list of items that I felt I could sell for enough to purchase the 2 cards I really wanted. Five weeks later they send them and i get them only to find that the most expensive card in the bunch is not included in those cards that I received. Instead of a Dansby Swanson Bowman Draft Green REfractor auto i receive a Miguel Sano Gold Refractor auto that sells for about $40 where the Swanson was selling for about $150. When I contacted Topps i was told that the Swanson card was no longer available so they substituted and equal value card in its place. Luckily for me the Sano booked lower than the Swanson so they had to allow me to return it for a different card. We were now already into February and every card I chose after that suddenly was not available when they went to send it to me. What it was is that every card I chose was selling for at least its book value and Topps Customer Service Manager evidently will not approve anything like that as a replacement, you have to get screwed over in order to get what you should have, even though they got $450 in cash. Numerous times I said just replace the 2 cards I wanted and we could call the entire thing even, but that is impossible for them.
So I finally threatend to contact Topps CEO with how ridiculous his staff makes it to get what his company is promising and how stupid it is that supposedly only the Customer Service Manager, who is never in the office from what I have determined, has access to determine if the card that they have offered you is actually available to be mailed. So the CSR can look in the system and make offers of cards that they supposedly have but ONLY the CSR Manager can see for sure if that card really exists?? One day after making that threat, I was notified that my latest selection (that had already been held up for 3 weeks) was available and shipping that day. I finally got a purple Topps Chrome (although they referred to it as a Blue one and told me that they knew more about their cards than I did - even when the card was #'d to 250) Schwarber RC which does sell for close to the $120 BV that it is given.
I still would rather have gotten these 2 cards though:
2017 Heritage Real One Auto Francisco Lindor
2017 Stadium Club Foil Board Jason Varitek auto #'d to 10 as he rarely signs things.
But instead wound up with a couple of autos of really good players but value wise not worth much and sentiment wise or PC wise not worth a thing to me:
2011 Gypsy Queen Brooks Robinson auto
2016 Legacies of Baseball Johnny Bench auto
2016 Legacies of Baseball Barry larkin auto
Everything else is not even worth mentioning. So redeem at your own risk knowing that you might get what you are supposed to quickly (happens sometime), you might have to wait a few months during which time the value can and usually does drop, might have to wait 2+ years like I did for my Koufax Finest Mystery Redemption Auto (after it was announced) or as some, be waiting for 5+ years and get zero response from Topps when you inquire. Then you might get the complete shaft like I did where their delivery agent loses the package, pays them the value of the package and they then give you something that is worth less than half of what they got paid.
I would always sell them as soon as i get them now, PERIOD !!
