One of the stories that came out of the Industry Summit in Las Vegas last week was the repeated request of the card companies to have final checklists in the hands of shop owners earlier than is currently happening. Several reasons were given for why that is not a likely scenario. But it really did not take the give and take of the Summit to provide a concrete reason for this problem.
Even the card companies do not always know what they are doing before they do it.
Case in point: the 2014 Topps Baseball Series 1 hobby packs have listed, in the fine print on the back, the promise of “Spring Fever Redemption” cards to be seeded 1:36 packs. One problem…there weren’t any! Less than 24 hours after the release of the flagship Topps product the message boards were filled with collectors, dealers and others asking what happened to the redemptions.
Last year, the program meant if you received one you took it to a local hobby shop and received the special Spring Fever pack.
Evidently, between the printing of this year’s cards and the filling of the packs, Topps had a change of heart (or the cards weren’t ready). The result? Topps will hold the 2014 Spring Fever promotion inside local shops and collectors will have to buy more boxes and packs to get them.
Topps 2014 Spring Fever is available only through these approved stores (and they likely have the special signage advertising their participation up by now), and is designed to go along with the excitement that usually surrounds Major League Baseball’s Opening Week.
Those who visit the shops during Baseball’s Opening Week, March 31 through April 6, can participate in the promotion. Customers who purchase 18 packs of Series 1 Baseball cards will receive one five-card Topps Spring Fever Pack, those who purchase 36 packs of Series 1 will receive two packs during the promotion.
Topps Spring Fever cards feature a design unique only to these cards, and some packs will include autographed cards from current and retired baseball stars. Early indications are that among the notables signing cards for these packs are Don Mattingly, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Pedro Martinez, Rickey Henderson and Tony Gwynn.
You can see previously produced Topps Spring Fever cards on eBay here.
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[…] about the strange way Topps went about their 2014 Spring Fever campaign. With the exception of how the cards were confusingly made available at the first, it was a fairly straightforward proposition. During the Opening Week of the baseball season […]