Panini America’s customer service team is indicating that the company will no longer honor expired redemption cards found in older products.
There was no official corporate announcement, but answers to weekend tweets from collectors who held redemptions that were past the cutoff date indicated Panini had changed its policy.
Trading card companies put redemption cards in a pack as a sort of IOU, usually when players fail to return autographed cards in time to be placed in a product. Other issues can also also result in collectors receiving a redemption. The redemption certificates are usually valid for a significant amount of time, such as the 2018 Drew Brees National Treasures autograph shown at left. Collectors scratch off a code on the card and enter it online, then await delivery once the player hopefully gets around to signing the card. Waits can be lengthy.
Despite the use of expiration dates, Panini had previously been honoring requests from collectors to provide something in return if they pulled an expired redemption card from an older product. That time has apparently come to an end, at least for now.
Sorry, But we can’t do anything going forward for any expired redemptions.
— PaniniCSM (@PaniniCSM) April 17, 2020
However, in an online chat Monday, Vice President of Marketing Jason Howarth urged collectors to hang onto their expired redemptions, indicating the issue was primarily due to the company changing its online platform and kicking out any expired redemption code that was entered by collectors. “We’re working on the technology to address it to find a way to make sure you can still enter in the expired redemption,” he said. “We don’t have an answer right now.” Panini’s CS developer is not in the United States but the company is hoping adjustments can be made to offer collectors an option to get something from the expired cards.
Pending redemptions that had already been entered into the company’s online system prior to the sudden policy change will still be honored if the card is in stock or the company will provide rewards points for those that aren’t.
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