Merry Christmas from Topps

When it comes to sending out Christmas cards to friends and family, I'm horrible. I never remember to do so and when I do it's usually out of guilt because I'm already receiving cards from my family and such. 

Since the end of the baseball season I guess you could say I've been on haitus. I've been working behind the scenes sparingly on a few things and still opening my share of packs (I love the Holiday set Topps did for Walmart), however until I can reclaim my collection and get some organization it's hard for me to do much. Needless to say I've been a little out of the loop so I hadn't heard of Topps sending (I assuming their Topps Now customers) a Christmas card with a little cardboard gift inside. Coincidentially enough, the night I was scanning these cards I saw that my buddy over at Collating Cards was doing the same type of post!

Since I had already got this ball rolling, I found it no use to scrap the post and decided to move forward. In what I believe was an unprecidented move, Topps sent their customers a little Christmas card thanking them for their business in 2016 along with a little gift.

I guess you could say this is the final Topps Now card in the set? Wonder if they'll list the print run on their website like they did all the other cards? I betcha it has the highest print run! I ended up with two of these cards and as it is I've been looking for Kris Bryant cards to send to a guy that is putting a little package together for a young kid.

This is a very classy move by Topps that this collector very much appreciates. I enjoyed coming back to the Topps Now website just about every day during the baseball season...especially after a Braves player had a good day at the plate or made a spectacular play in the field. I look forward to what Topps has planned for this Now brand in 2017. It'd be nice if they borrowed the move from Panani Instant and actually print the print run on the back of the card (not serially numbered, but 1 of 246).

Topps Comes Through (a redemption story)

Earlier this year in February, I pulled a redemption card for an autograph of the young WWE Superstar, Neville. While wrestling autograph cards don't usually get me all that excited, I have to admit I was looking forward to getting this card in the mail. I promptly logged onto Topps' website and redeemed the card. The wait began. I waited...and waited...and waited. Nothing.

About two months ago I decided to check on the status via the website and I saw that there was an option to forego the wait and request a replacement. I've read enough card blogs to know that if I went that route I wouldn't get the Neville auto I had been waiting on. The replacement card may be something better...or it may be something worse, like an auto of Curtis Axel!

However yesterday a fat padded envelope came from Topps and I figured it was finally my replacement card. I ripped open the mailer and I found not one replacement card, but two?!

I don't know if this is normal or not, but apparently the extra card comes as a added bonus for making me wait so long. What I don't get is what was the hold up in getting the autographed cards from Neville. I know WWE Superstars live a very grueling road life much of the year, but Neville was on the shelf injured for a good part of the 2016. Couldn't he have signed his cards for Topps during his time away from the ring? Whatever the reason, it's nice to see that Topps was at least trying to make me happy. Speaking of that, did they? What was the replacement?

I got this nice auto of Dean Malenko from 2013 Topps and I was pretty darn happy. You see I was more of a WCW fan growing up, NWA before that. I never watched much WWE until the "Monday Night Wars" heated up. I loved the cruiser weight division that WCW featured and Dean was fun to watch in the ring. A very technical wrestler that could spar with the best. 

Now the image Topps used for this card isn't the best in my opinion. In fact he looks a little creepy with the way he's looking at his opponent. None the less, not a bad replacement at all.

My bonus card is this nice WrestleMania 30 mat relic from 2014 Topps. I enjoy these type of gimmicky cards in wrestling releases almost as much as I enjoy jersey and bat cards from baseball products. I do like the fact that they tell you what event this piece is taken from as opposed to the normal line from Topps. I also enjoy watching Cesaro perform. Just check out him in the process of body slamming none other than the Big Show!

Everyone knows that Redemption cards can be risky, but for once I'm happy to say that things worked out well and I appreciate Topps for trying to go the extra mile to keep one of their customers happy.