Free Cards! National Trading Card Day Checklist

[leftyshan]

What a joke. I drove 30 minutes from my house to some hole in the wall card shop that was on the list of participating stores. When I get there and inquire about the NTCD cards he hands me a "grab bag" that he put together. It included the Topps pack, 3 '02 Press Pass cards (commons) and a frickin' lollipop. A LOLLIPOP!!! ™™™???

He kept the Upper Deck, Donruss, Press Pass and Fleer for himself (surely to sell). Oh well, luckily there was another reputable dealer close that I was able to get 2 intact sets from. These cards are very nice looking.

[SingleDaddyof2]

I didn't get to stop by a card shop to see if I could get a set. Instead I went to a card show. I picked up a couple of boxes of '04 Fleer Tradition (box break will be posted in the Box Breaks forum). I saw one dealer with NTCD cards. He was selling them for $8.00 each. That really irritates me when dealers sell what is supposed to be free. Its also not fair to the honest, ethical dealers who went to the trouble of providing free cards as the mfrs. had intended. I had purchased product from this dealer in the past but I won't be buying from him anymore.

[TurdFerguson]

Did you ask him why he was selling cards that where supposed to be free ?

[SingleDaddyof2]

Yes. He said the dealers had to pay for the cards from the mfrs. I don't know if that's true but I have my doubts. I think its more likely the dealers paid nothing or nearly nothing. From what I read in other NTCD posts, quite a few dealers were not giving these cards away completely free to anyone. Some required a purchase or restricted the cards to kids under a certain age.

[Cacciato]

According to this http://www.beckett.com/ntcd/retailer.asp page on the NTCD site, there was a "minimal" charge to retailers for the kits. And according to the FAQ, collecters were not supposed to pay for these cards.

[SingleDaddyof2]

Good catch, cacciato! I'm still mad at myself for not getting the dealer's name. I wonder if I were to report him, who would I report him to? And would he be made to suffer some kind of consequences by the mfrs.?

[Cacciato]

I'd say Beckett would be a good place to start since the NTCD web pages are connected to their site. Seems like Beckett is responsible for setting up NTCD anyway.

[Jurslap]

Are you guys really surprised that some dealers did this?

It's a shame, but expected the way our hobby is today.

Jur

[SingleDaddyof2]

No, I'm not surprised--just repulsed by being so close to scum. Too bad they don't have what it takes to be ethical, honest dealers.

[BlackDiam0nd66]

That makes me wanna puke in my shoes that dealers made folks pay for the supposed "free" sets, or didn't give them out at all....how stupid can they be??? So it cost them a small amount for the cards........do they not understand the concept "you have to put in money to make money"? Don't they see that when the customers find out that those were supposed to be free and they had to pay, that they will lose any money they would have otherwise made from said customers? Idiots....these are the scumbags that really piss me off :explicit:

Not tooting my own horn, but I gave out the following, out of my own collection, to customers:

-some micro helmets and little bobbleheads
-Kelloggs 3D baseball (79-82 Misc players; Stargell, Ozzie Smith, etc
-1 Complete set of 1990 Score Baseball
-1 Complete set of 1991 UD Baseball
-Approx 500 Star & RC's reg issues/few inserts (Vick, Tomlinson, Lewis, Holmes, ETC)

-Also gave out some autographs w/purchases (the stuff above went to pretty much anyone who came to the table)

THAT is what the hobby is about....I don't expect folks to come out of there own stuff for free for others, BUT when you are given sets from the manufacturers (who, IMO, should not have charged for them either) you should do what is RIGHT.

Sorry, but this just makes me sooooooooooooooooooo mad.....greed is going to kill this hobby :(

Peace~
Rima