TOPPS IS FINISHED!!!

This is a follow up to my redemption replacement comments on the previous post last updated 8/23/13:

 

I unleashed a semi-polite tirade on Joe Kellachan because he has the attitude that whatever he does to fix an admitted problem is the end all to the issue like he is knows it all and also has the attitude like these cards are coming out of his paycheck. PLEASE!!!

 First of all, he knows very little about this hobby and what REAL collectors (like myself) truly think. I mean how many times do I have to say to Topps that I HATE NOTHING MORE THAN STICKER AUTOGRAPHS? Not to mention saying that here over & over- and I know Topps has seen these posts.

 

Joe Kellachan tells me he's sending me three sealed boxes of cards (2013 Finest Football with ONLY sticker autographs, Topps Star Wars Galactic Files II (no autographs)???, and 2013 Bowman Platinum Baseball -33% sticker autographs) for the $140.00 in ON CARD autograph inserts he admitted he owes me and was supposed to send me, PLUS the HORRIBLE replacements I already received whether I asked for replacements OR NOT (like for the TWO 2012 Ginter Guy Bluford Autograph that I STILL WANT!) which I would have GLADLY returned to Topps and the other 2013 Allen & Ginter box he also admitted he owed me.

This is exactly what he said & my responses WORD FOR WORD (Joe's comments are regular black & red, mine are BOLD BLACK):

 

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Joe,

 

My responses are in black (and bold) below yours so we can keep track & thank you for your quick response.

 

I am sorry to hear that you feel the value of replacements were not acceptable. I just want to be clear as to what you are expecting.

 

That's all I want too & the LAST thing I wanted was to have to bother you again.

Point #1:

You had purchased (8) Ginter Relic Redemptions valued at $25 each, so total value is $200.00

You received from Topps (3) autos (Dale Murphy, Adrian Gonzalez & David Price) - which you feel are valued at at total of $60.00 based on condition.

We need to come to some resolution on this difference of $140.00 in value, correct?

 

Correct.

Point #2:

You are unhappy with the FREE cards, packs we sent you.

We can certainly send you some more unopened RETAIL packs, but I think this is a first for us to have someone complain about receiving free product.

 

This was HARD for me to complain about, but you offered something specific that was not delivered.

You specifically told me "we have several hundred packs we can send you.". Then I get less than (100) packs AND everything else I was told by TWO people didn't happen correctly either. If this was ONLY regarding the donation I wouldn't have said one word.

I didn't tell you that I asked my friend Sy Berger in 2006 who I should ask at Topps about getting cards for my yearly donations & he told me to contact Warren Friss by e-mail. So I did, and Mr. Friss never responded to SEVERAL e-mails from 2006 and I tried again in 2007. I wouldn't dare bother Sy with this as he deserves his retirement more than any person I've ever met, so I never told him about this. In fact I never bothered him again as I got so sick soon after that it took me a few years to get my head together that my life had a death clock ticking with about 4-years left now.

Then Upper Deck started sending me cards in 2009 after I asked Richard McWilliam & he sent my request to a very nice woman who helped each year until she was let go (something that happened OFTEN to good UD employees from what I now know).

I write down everything that occurs on the phone in text files on my desktop until they are resolved. I have a Topps Redemption file that's been sitting on my desktop since 01/07/13.

Point #3:

You are unhappy with the FREE Box of Ginter we sent you. You had asked for 1 or 2 Boxes of Ginter.

We sent you one box, and you are concerned with the condition of the box (crease)? You don't mention if the packs or cards were damaged. I will personally send you an additional unopened Hobby Box of Ginter. I will not be able to send this until (9/3). So you will receive this later next week.

That's correct I asked for "1 or 2" boxes. Then you said you had no problem sending two boxes & Claudia confirmed that TWO were being sent. These were not at all free. These were to make up for the (3) Mark Barron Bowman ($15 each) Autographs, the Tim Kennedy $25 UFC Autograph, the 2011 Ginter Geno Auremmia $30 Autograph, the 2012 Ginter Rulon Gardner $25 Relic, and the two 2012 Guy Bluford ($25 ea.) Ginter Autographs that I received

cards for that I never wanted. 

I offered to send these back, but Claudia never said I should and I said "I'll just put the replacements I received in with my next donation." which she said was great. If you want these cards back I'll GLADLY send them back now.

I never had any intention of keeping them as they are all sticker autographs which I hate so much I don't even like donating them. I was lucky enough to be at Playoff when they were throwing a party for the mail room guy who came up with the idea to use return address labels for autographs (literally). So I got this guy face to face and said "if you went to a sports event and could get autographs, would you bring a sheet of address labels to get autographed?". He

said no "I'd bring cards.". So I told him "NOW YOU SEE MY POINT & THE SIDE OF EVERY TRUE AUTOGRAPH COLLECTOR". I told him he had no idea the future negative effect these things are going to cause.

 

Since I got very sick by 2009 and the volume of my donations went down- I felt guilty. So I went on eBay and bought lots of star player cards every year (at least $500- my cost) to "beef up" my donations. I'll pull any common duplicates I catch as I'm making boxes too. This is VERY HARD WORK for me since sitting up causes me excruciating pain after just 10-minutes maximum. But I vowed to continue donating every year until I'm dead to myself in 1989 after being so inspired by my friend Gary Carter.

I hope this will clear up some of the existing concerns you have. Our goal is to come to an amicable solution and work with you. 

 

We have the same goal. I tend to over explain things to avoid going back & forth too many times as I appreciate your time. This has worked well for me in the 8-years I fought fraud by card companies & price guides by interviewing hundreds and posting the results on a web site I used to have from 1997-2004. I'm sorry if I went overboard or gave you the impression that I was angry or felt that you weren't trying to resolve this. I appreciate everything you offered very much. If I would have received what was offered, you would have never heard from me again. I'm not saying that sarcastically at all.

 

It's hard for me to correctly state my issues with things when I'm in constant pain. So much pain that 99% of people can't even imagine my 24/7 pain- that's how my Pain Management doctor described my pain. It's so bad that I was told it's many times worse than the worst cancer pain because NOTHING stops my pain and I had to reevaluate my 1 to 10 scale at least four times since 2003 when my pain became a constant 3 out of 10 or much higher. My friends all deserted me and I have no family. All I have is helping sick children, and that has become my only reason to live. I had a great life while I was healthy & lived it to it's fullest so there's nothing to feel bad about. I just wanted you to see things from my perspective for a moment and I want to apologize for being this way.

 

James

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As you can see he has very little to say. I always over-explain things so conversations don't have to keep going back & forth endlessly.

I'm not at all surprised that I got mostly crap out of all the boxes I received. You see, corporate has no access to boxes of cards other than freebies they get sent from time to time. In most cases these are overflow boxes that were at the very end of the print run and ran out of some or ALL good hits. I know this from personal experience working as a Senior Manager at Playoff when I busted them in 2001. Why else would he send me a Star Wars box??? I never once mentioned to anyone at Topps that I ever even bought one pack on non-sports!

 

1) What was most disappointing was the lack of ANY good cards from TWO Ginter boxes. I was lucky enough to get one Yasiel Puig base RC in one box & that's the best card I pulled out of TWO boxes! Not one NNO mini card or #/25 mini, or SSP mini, or Rip card, or Autograph, or ANYTHING!!! I pulled three common game-used baseball cards in one box and only to GU baseball cards in the other which means one box was MISSING A HIT! I did get five of the EXACT SAME MINI inserts in Codes & Ciphers (and no other mini inserts in that box): The Vonich Papers. I'm making a mini master set for a sick child as a donation, these boxes barely helped at all except for the base cards. Joe said the value of these boxes was $94.00 each??? Where he gets his info is beyond earthly explanation...

 

2) Next I opened the Finest box (two mini boxes): I got my best pull out of ALL the boxes in this box- a Robert Griffin III auto/jersey card #/50, BUT IT'S AN UGLY STICKER AUTOGRAPH. I gave it away already. The patch (one color)/auto was of Stedman Bailey (which is basically a common STICKER auto). And I got a REDEMPTION (to add insult to injury) of Matt Barkley's RC Refractor Autograph (STICKER OF COURSE!).  I gave that away too. Joe priced this box at $115.00, HAH???

These are glorified (2) packs boxes at $50 each, nothing more!

 

3) Then I opened the Star Wars box. I got an ugly Printer's Plate (far distance scene, so the plate is all smeared) and got a truly ugly Sketch card of that little yellow guy from the Mos Eisley Cantina who played the flute like instrument (the sketch doesn't even have the flute). Any semi-talented 12-year old could draw this just as well... These will be donated. Joe priced this box at $90.00...

 

4) Lastly the Bowman Platinum Box. The STICKER Jersey auto was Joe Panik (almost worthless), and got two BASE ON CARD autos: Peter O'Brien (how many years in a row are Topps going to make rookie autographs of guys like this? WORTHLESS) & Maikel Franco (a $15-$20 card)- THE ONLY CARD I'M KEEPING FOR MYSELF OUT OF FIVE BOXES!!!

 

I did get some replacement COMMONS from Duryea, PA but not one is worth even mentioning. They are ALL JUNK to me. All the game-used cards to replace my 2012 Ginter non-sport GU cards were from Triple Threads and were ALL commons that booked for $10.00. Anyone who was making master GU Ginter 2012 sets knows that those redemptions were $10+ each no matter where you bought them! So how could Topps think their card that books for $10 for a common is worth the exact same as a $10 BILL??? THAT IS INSANE! At least I got a bunch of cards to donate from Kellachan, however I could have bought all these cards I'm donating on eBay for FAR LESS than what I spent getting the redemption cards in the first place. So in the end I'm the one who lost.

 

Just to make sure it just wasn't my HORRIBLE luck here: I contacted over (20) big eBay sellers directly about these redemption replacements and they all are saying the same thing: "WE GOT RIPPED-OFF BIG TIME" & "We will never enter in redemptions to Topps again!".  This means they'll be selling their redemptions to unknowing collectors like you SO BEWARE!

 

James