Don’t toss those expired Panini America redemption cards just yet.
The company says it has made adjustments to the customer service platform on its website and will once again allow for the input of codes from redemption cards from old products that are past the stated cutoff deadline.
Earlier this month, collectors who contacted the company’s customer service team on Twitter were told that expired redemptions could no longer be submitted because of “an official policy change.”
According to a post on the company’s website Tuesday, however, that isn’t the case.
Panini says it has been in the midst of updating its customer service platform and the rejection of expired redemption cards was simply one of the bugs that needed to be fixed during its first wave of updates. The post indicates it was due to “back-end dating-allowance issues when the platform initially launched.”
Redemption cards are typically inserted in place of an autographed card when a certain athlete doesn’t return the signed cards in time for them to be placed into a trading card manufacturer’s packs. Collectors then go to the card company’s website and type in the code from the back of the card. Once the autographed version is available, the card is then shipped to the consumer. Collectors who get tired of waiting or find out the autograph session isn’t going to happen at all can choose the option of a different card offered by the company. Panini uses its Rewards Points to facilitate those transactions.
Panini is the only major trading card manufacturer that has made attempts to honor expired redemptions, although much of that ability depends upon players finally getting around to signing the autographs they had committed to complete.
Panini says it will “continue to fulfill expired redemptions if we still have the actual card in stock; for cards that are no longer in stock, collectors will continue to receive 50 percent value in Panini Rewards Points as determined by Panini.”
That means it’s still generally better to hope a player does get around to honoring the autograph commitment. The value of what a collector may be forced to accept if the original card is unavailable may not come close to matching what was supposed to have been delivered, but it’s better than nothing.
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