Boycott Topps?

[lecktronix]

Ok, I have a rant to unleash

Are you tired of pulling cards out of a pack to find it damaged or severely off-centered? Sick of waiting 2-10 months to get something you pulled out of a pack today? Quit buying Topps then!!!

I will admit that all manufacturers have a problem here and there with production, but despite having to wait for ever, they normally resolve the issue by replacing the card/s. I think Upper Deck has the worst QA dept(if they have one) of all of them. I opened 15-20 SP Sig tins and got damaged cards inside a SEALED TIN... It sucks having to wait months on a replacement, but at least they do support their product. Topps just sent me a nice little letter letting me know that 2003/04 Topps Chrome Basketball is all gone. How in the heck can you produce a product and not have replacements available on a product that was not released too long ago. I could understand if I was trying to replace 2002/03 product. Oh boy...

As some of you may know, I am not a BIG HITTER, but I have thrown around about $10k this basketball season on wax. I bought more than 2 1/2 cases of Toppps Chrome. This year with the Rookie Crop we have, I wanted to put away a ton of Topps Chrome. Well in packs I pulled 10-12 of each rookie. I only pulled 9 Lebrons and 11 Carmelos. Out of those I have 4 Lebrons and 5 caremelos that are almost worthless. They are 80/20 or worse. I returned them to Topps for replacement, but they were returned with the letter stating that they are out of Topps Chrome replacements. Long story short, I now have $500+ worth of worthless Lebron and Carmelo Topps Chrome RCs.

I am not asking you to have sympathy for me, but maybe re-evaluate the companies you buy cards from. I for one, vow to never buy another Topps Product. In fact, I will be creating a list of all Topps Chrome I have and will be unloading it for what I can get.

Boycott Topps... UD is next if I pull another $400 card damaged.

The Topps Company will be happy to replace any current-season, factory-produced defective products as long as supplies last. However, card-per-card replacement is limited to a total of 25 cards per submission. To receive a replacement, send the defective product, along with a letter of explanation and a listing of the cards to:


The Topps Company
401 York Ave.
Duryea, PA 18642
ATTN: Consumer Relations Dept.


Centering is a factory defect right? Yes.


Thanks for listening....

PS. When I called the number on the letter to verify that this was correct, the customer service rep I got, had a "Who cares" attitude during the conversation. I am a small fish and they really do not need my business alone, but if others do the same, maybe we can impact them and their piss-poor customer service.

[mfweiland]

That is horrible and I 100% agree with you. I mostly buy fleer anyways and have have had great experiences with them all around and think there product provides high value for the money. I was going to buy some topps chrome packs today lol but now I wont just to support you. I am a little guy 2 and we all need to stick up for what is right!!!!!!

[LeChuck]

Well I won't be boycotting Topps, as the only experience I've had with their QA was a good one, but I do think that is crap. I thought it was common practice that if a card company didn't have exact replacement cards that they would at least send something outside of a "we're sorry" letter to make up for the damaged card.

[lecktronix]

I have decided to take it one step furthur. I am taking all the Topps I own(mainly this year since I got out in 1997 and started back this year) and put all of them in one EBAY auction and tell why I am upset in the auction. Then the winning bidder will pay 75% to "George Teague and Friends Foundation" and 25% to me to handle paypal, listing, and shipping fees (and buy some mcdonalds with the left over)

I am listing the cards now and will probaly have the auction up this weekend.

[superman23]

Give us a link when you set the auction up.

[lecktronix]

sure thing.

[Fishkid04]

i would stop buying them completely

Id tell them u will and see if they'll send back ur card n something else!

[SingleDaddyof2]

My 2.5 cents...I hate opening packs and finding damaged cards, too. However, I believe that many times its not manufacturer's fault. The product may have been dropped/damaged at the store I purchased the cards from.

I used to be a supervisor in a warehouse. Many times, warehouse workers will climb up to the higher shelves and simply drop a case of product down to the floor--especially if the product needed to get out in a hurry. If the cases were relatively light, another warehouse worker would catch the cases below--if management staffed enough manpower. Many times, these dropped cases were returned back to warehouse because the cellophane bags inside were found to be unsealed. One day I compared bags in dropped cases and normal cases. Guess which cases had the "unsealed" bags. This confirmed to me that the bags inside came unsealed due to the impact of the cases with the ground. But instead of being stuck with cases of unsealed bags, we just returned them back to the distributor and got credit for them--even though it wasn't the manufacturer's or distributor's fault. In case you were wondering, the product I'm talking about is roasted peanuts--the same kind/size you buy when you go to a sporting event.

My point is stores/dealers will not handle boxes/cases of cards like precious cargo if there is a large amount to be moved. You warehouse/store stockers will know what I mean. Its also possible that store customers (especially retail) drop/damage card product and simply put the product back on the shelf without store employees being aware of it.

So I ask myself...how can I blame the manufacturer when it could have been the store/distributor's fault? All I can do is go back to where I bought the product from and get a refund/store credit. Usually, the store's will accommodate me but in the back of my mind I always remember that we don't live in a perfect world.
:(

As far as badly centered/printing error cards, I'll save that for another post. That clearly is the manufacturer's fault.

[lecktronix]

The Auction is online now :
Link

[stalking_WOLF_21]

good gosh thats a lot of cards