What would you ask the Card Companies? Contest Thread

Panini-Can you please improve your customer service help with redemptions

Leaf-Keep offering new products for sports other than the major four

I would like to see players like Calvin Johnson,Tom Brady,and many others from different sports that hardly sign auto's to sign
as a fan it would be great to have a chance at some of these.

Also lets get more creative for example lets see some more real cool stuff like Authentic Jersey's from all sports,Real baseball Gloves and Bat's and Hockey Sticks and Helmets. Imagine getting a Bobby Orr real hockey stick that he used or Dan Marino football that he threw for a touchdown that is the kind of stuff we as collectors would treasure.

Offer more pack redemption's rewards to the customers that is spending mega bucks on your company's products!!!

More Superstar and Hall of Fame legend Auto's from Players that hardly ever Sign bring back the chase to collect them!!!

I would like answers to the following five questions from each of the card companies:

Question 1:  What the fuck is wrong with you guys?


Question 2:  No, seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?


Question 3 [mostly for Topps, but would be good to get everyone's take]:  What is your company's policy regarding the shelf-life of the event-worn jerseys that a player wears (however tangentially) during the RPS preceding his rookie season?  In other words, for how long beyond that player's rookie season is it permissible to use swatches from those jerseys in new cards that get issued during subsequent product years?

As a practical matter, it's more or less expected that you're going to see some leftover RPS jerseys used for second-year player relics.  For instance, I think that all collectors pretty much understand that every Luck and RG3 relic that made it into 2013 products was actually cut from a jersey that the player had worn at the previous year's RPS (and not from an actual game-used jersey worn during the 2012 season).  So, for better or worse (and it's definitely for worse, by the way, but that's not really the point here), collectors generally understand what they're getting in cases like that.

It seems much more problematic, however, when it comes to more seasoned veterans.  Generally, if a player has been in the league for a handful of years, the expectation is that his relics will be game-used.  Yet, there seem to be a disturbing number of cases where these vet relics are really just from 5 or 6 year old (or older) RPS event-worn jerseys.   And with the purposefully vague wording of on-card memorabilia guarantees nowadays, many collectors will never know that what they have is not, in fact, a legitimate game-used relic.   As one particularly glaring example, both 2012 Five Star and 2013 Triple Threads feature dozens of Eli Manning patch relics taken from event-worn jerseys that he "wore" at the RPS back in early 2004.  The average collector would assume these patches were game-used, and there's nothing on the cards to alert him that this isn't the case.

Is this kind of purposeful deception OK?  Is it acceptable to just stockpile a career's worth of event-worn jerseys before a guy plays a single NFL snap, and then not tell collectors about the true nature of the swatches when you're still using them 10 years later?


Question 4:  Are you aware that (i) purposely or knowingly misrepresenting items that you sell and (ii) charging money in exchange for a promise that you have no particular intention of keeping and/or no reasonable basis for believing you'll be able to keep BOTH constitute fraud and breach of contract?  If so, are you surprised that you have not yet become the target of a large-scale consumer class action and/or governmentally or privately initiated RICO, fraud, or antitrust case?  If you're not surprised that this hasn't happened yet, do you realize that it's almost certainly just a matter of time?


Question 5 [mostly for Panini]:  Are you familiar with NFL Rules 5.1.2(a)-(f) and 5.4.3(c), which govern player-worn numerals, and which flatly and unequivocally prohibit a QB or RB from wearing uniform number 88 on (or even near) the field of play on game day?  Assuming that you are, do you realize how insulting it is to receive an otherwise coveted QB or RB rookie card that contains a large patch that was clearly and very obviously cut from an event-worn jersey bearing the number 88 (i.e., a jersey that the particular player would never even potentially be permitted to wear, under any circumstances)?  Believe me, I know all of the reasons that have been given for using generic #88 jerseys for all the RPS players and the arguments for why it supposedly has to be that way (I also know that each and every one of those reasons and arguments is complete and utter bullshit, but that's a separate discussion), but if you insist on giving me an illegal jersey that was only sort of worn for a brief moment in some hotel conference room months before the season, the least you can do is not rub my face in it.

In addition to the 200 #88 jerseys, why don't you get 5 or so that have the player's real number and last name on them, which you can use for high-end products and really big SP jumbo patches in lower end stuff.  Or just get somebody with half a brain to cut the things up so it's not so fucking obvious.  Either way, I don't have to be reminded of what a farce the whole thing is every time I look at the NT RPA I spent thousands of dollars chasing.

1. Have you ever thought about making less products? Why is there a need for 40 different products at the same price point?

2. Have you ever considered going redemptionless? How about getting guys to sign and if they don't sign, find replacements who will? These guys get paid to sign and if they don't care enough then why should we care?

Please ask for more on card autos. I am willing to wait on products for a longer time if that means more on card autos. Also is there a way they can put on the card where their "game used" stuff comes from? So much fake stuff out there unless you know where it came from they can be using fake stuff. Also can they cut back on # of products and give more quality than quantity. 

1. In regards to redemptions, is there a way, or is there one in development, to allow for them to be fulfilled quicker? Whether it be through replacements after the tie period has ended or some other means of fulfillment.

2. Is there a plan to attempt to go to all on card autographs and avoid sticker autographs all together? Topps specifically, advertised them as such in 2012 with their Topps Chrome line, but they still had sticker autographs (including the Russell Wilson Superfractor auto I received through redemption nearly a year ago).

To panini:
1.what are your plan to support the card breaker?because I think the card breaker plays a very important role in this sportcards business

2.why can't you guarantee a hit from your exclusive player as big hit in your product like upper deck did with their exquisite?

1) I would like to know if any have plans to try and eliminate all these fake patch cards that seem to be flooding eBay? Maybe a database of what the card looks like before it goes into a pack.

2) Will Panini ever get a Baseball License back?