30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Serial Number Sham

I don't want to become a Negative Nancy, Ranting Ralph, or Fussy Fuji... but sometimes it's better to let it all out and move on with your life, than to hold it in and let it eat you up.  With that being said... last Sunday's flea market experience is in the past and I'm ready to move forward.

But as we wrap up 2015, I have one more issue to address.  This time in regards to my favorite baseball card company:  Topps.

It has to do with this 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom relic of a ticket for Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration in 1981:


Now for those who don't know... I have a small Reagan PC and when my friend showed this to me, I was immediately interested in adding this card to it.


He offered it to me for $20, which I felt was fair since it claimed to be a one of a kind collectible.  After the purchase, I decided to see if any similar cards had closed on eBay to make sure I was paying a fair price.  Here's what I discovered:


Can anyone spot the problem?  Yeah... Topps dropped the ball and mislabeled all of these as 1/1's.  Thankfully my buddy isn't in the business of ripping off his friends... and gave me a full refund.

But how many of these have exchanged hands over the past six years with the buyers thinking they were owning a one of a kind collectible?  Sure these recently closed auction prices aren't going to ruin anyone financially, but you gotta wonder if anyone spent over $14.19 back in 2009.

C'mon Topps!  I've been loyal to your company for over three decades.  You can't be making these rookie mistakes.

First you give us vague descriptions on your game used memorabilia card COA's... and now you're giving collectors who pull this particular card the idea that they're holding onto a rare 1/1 card.  Not cool bro.  Not cool.

Well... that's it for today.  I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays.  Happy Thursday and sayonara!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

These Successful Companies have no moals or ethics, they employ chineese (Slaves) same with NIKE& the rest.

Zippy Zappy said...

"C'mon Topps! I've been loyal to your company for over three decades. You can't be making these rookie mistakes."

No offense Fuji, but brand loyalty is for suckers. Topps told me so.

defgav said...

Lame! I wonder how many there really are.

Billy Kingsley said...

I'm pretty that's the card number, not the serial number. Deceptive for sure, but not the first time it's been done.

Matt said...

Thats just wrong. Cool piece, but they shouldn't have done it that way

Fuji said...

mj - i truly hope they're not hiring people at slave wages. that truly would be sad.

zippy - bro. i've been a sucka from the time i dove into the sports card hobby back in the 80's.

defgav - no idea. if i were to guess, i'd say it's as common as any other relic card produced that year

billy - you might be right... but it's odd that topps would put the card number on the front. i remember having one or two promo cards from the 90's that were numbered 1 of 3 and collectors thought they were holding onto a rare card.

sport card collectors - my sentiments exactly

Daniel Wilson said...

Still a cool piece of history!

Fuji said...

I know. I'm hoping he'll resell it to me for a much lower price. Unfortunately... I think he paid $15 for it, so that's not likely to happen.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I've got a bad perception of Topps these days after they messed up two orders and handled the situations poorly. Their quality control is bad, and this example is right in line with what I experienced.

Fuji said...

That's a shame. Customer service should always be #1 for any company... especially ones involving sales. Hopefully they make things right with you.