Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A Few Random Things

Topps proves once again that they suck at life. I've been waiting almost 8 months for a few redemption autos. Finally, last week week, I gave up and called and asked for replacements. Today, I received the three replacements.


So, for a 2013 Topps Tribute blue parallel auto of Gio Gonzalez, a card with equivalent book value would be...


A 2011 Bowman Chrome auto numbered to 500 of CJ Cron? Never heard of him... I'm having a hard time believing that this is a card of equivalent value of a 2013 Gio Gonzalez blue auto numbered to 99.


And a 2011 Bowman Chrome auto to 500 of Trevor Story is supposed to have the same book value as a 2013 Tier One Crowd Pleaser copper rose auto parallel of Nelson Cruz numbered to 25. Impossible.


This was the replacement for my 2013 Bowman Inception base auto: a 2012 base auto of Max Fried. Okay, I believe that these two could have similar book value.

I'm currently on hold with Topps, Caller 7 to be exact, waiting to get an explanation for this nonsense.

UPDATE: I finally talked to someone. I was told that the Cron-for-Gonzalez swap I'm stuck with because the book value is the same. Which is nonsense. However, they "made a mistake" in sending me the Story for the Cruz card, so I have to send it back to get the right card. The a**hole I talked to also let me know that he thought it was stupid of me to ask for replacements, and said that I shouldn't have been upset for having to wait more than eight months for the cards. I swear, had he been telling me this face-to-face, I would have dropped him like a sack of potatoes. I grew up in the country, in Texas, where we are taught not to treat someone like that. I've punched men for less...
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I also received an eBay package today. It makes me much happier than the package from Topps. In it was this:


A couple weeks ago, I showed off a Panini Black Friday card of Harper that I got. Well, I liked it so much that I got the other black Friday card. But, to my surprise, there were two of these in my package. I went back and read the item description, and somehow I missed that I was bidding on two of these cards. Oh well, I paid less than $3 for the both of them.

So, in the spirit of blogging brotherhood, I'm going to give the second card away. All you have to do is make sure you are following my blog and comment below. Also, if you mention the contest on your blog (post the link to your pimping in the comments section below), I'll give you anothe rentry. And if someone else enters the contest and mentions your name and blog, I'll give you another entry. The contest ends this Friday at noon central time, so get on it!
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Lastly, I leave you with a picture from Petco Park in San Diego. I visited last April, and I was just going through my pictures. I kind of forgot how beautiful it was!


18 comments:

  1. Those replacements are pretty disappointing. And bad customer service on top of a bad product experience is infuriating. I've had bad situations defused by good customer service personnel, and I've had bad experiences compounded to the point where I won't buy from certain companies (Dell) anymore because the customer 'service' was so terrible on top of the problem I had with the product.

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  2. Wow, sounds like the Topps Customer Service rep was inconvenienced, not like it is their job to support Topps' customers. Topps might as well include a giant middle finger on their redemption cards with a tagline "Go ahead and try to redeem this card, you may get something... someday"

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  3. That just sounds terrible. Hopefully you called them out on Twitter or something? I think Topps cares more about their social media image than their actual customer service, or at least that's the impression that I get.

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  4. at least they weren't expired.....but seriously, the numbering for the replacement should be the same or from the same set or shininess or something....bowman is low to mid-end, tier one is mid-end, and tribute is high-end.....that makes no sense....one high-end card should at least replace another one.

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  5. Wow. Glad I haven't had to deal with something like that. I'd go ballistic. I'm not allowed to call health insurance or credit card companies for that reason. My wife takes on those tasks to spare the poor operators. Hope you at least get something good for the Cruz replacement. Thanks for the contest!

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  6. Is that Scotch tape on the top loaders keeping the cards in place? Did they come from Topps that way? For shame.

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  7. Great Petco Park photo! Thanks for the contest. Hope I win!

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  8. Terrible customer service from Topps. I hate redemption cards with every beat of my heart...but have to admit that Panini was more than accommodating with me and very nice to talk to. Topps could definitely learn a thing or ten from their biggest competitor.

    Love the Harper card, hope i can pull a W!

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  9. Wow, those replacements suck, but even worse is the way they apparently treat people...hate that. Hope you get a better card in return !

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  10. FWIW, Cron is the son of Chris Cron. He was the Angels' 1st round pick in 2011 out of the University of Utah. Lots of power.

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  11. Topps really sucks. Good luck in the future. But good luck to me on the extra Harper.

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  12. Hopefully they make it right on thr next one.Also , great Petco pic.

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  13. I've said it before and I will say it again, "MOMMA ALWAYS SAYS THAT TOPPS IS DA DEVIL."

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  14. Great Waterboy reference above. I'm still waiting on a Harper auto from topps myself, kinda scared to ask for a replacement for this reason. I'd only want another harper auto or a trout auto, anything else I'd feel ripped off. Check out the blowout boards and do a search for topps customer service. I know someone posted on there what were good emails to escalate a problem too, especially after being treated so poorly.

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  15. That Cron card is useless to you. To me on the other hand....;-)

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  16. love that pic... I never knew it ever got cloudy in San Diego though...

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  17. A. That's insane that they expect you to send back the Trevor Story... the least they could do is throw that in for your troubles.

    B. Post a link to this post on Topps' Facebook and Twitter pages, so they can see that we read and support each other's blogs. I did that to Upper Deck and received a positive response within an hour.

    C. I'm definitely making my way down to SD for a night game this year. That's a beautiful photo.

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  18. Cool contest. Not the best Harper card but what the heck. How is it I hadn't been "following" this blog? Well I'm on that list now.

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