Yesterday and today's adds

Today's cards are number 85 and 86 respectively out of the 2013 Finest Set! Wright was Robert Griffin III's teammate at Baylor and was a first rounder as well which explains his presence in many 2012 products. JPP is one of those cogs to a Giants defense that was very good last year, this year, not so much.

In other news I got a notice from Panini that one of my redemptions has shipped. It is a 2012 Prism Autograph of Devier Posey. I bought it on a whim for a dollar or so plus shipping (a 3 dollar card essentially) and now a year later? It's still a 3 dollar card but I let Panini borrow my money with no interest. Sometimes it's even worse than that. Case in point is my 2011 Certified Emerald DJ Williams Autograph. These are numbered to five and at the time I purchased it I thought it was a good idea to buy it for 30.00 because the Packers were pretty hot for a good while after they won the SuperBowl. Now because this redemption has sat at Panini for years on end the card will be nearly worthless. I read an article a few years ago saying to buy redemption cards as investments because the redemptions should go for far less.  So far this has never panned out. Take my word for it, just buy live cards if you are looking to turn a profit on your sports cards purchases. Luckily I'm a collector as well as a seller, so if things don't go right I can always choose to keep the card and swallow the loss but big time Ebay kings don't always have that option. Redemption cards are a bad idea for a few reasons. 

1) They reduce the future value of a vintage box. When you buy a box let's say of 2006 Spx you have to realize that there may be redemptions in the box that can't be fulfilled. It might be kind of disappointing to hit a triple autograph that never got made because the card reached its expiration. I think the solution would be to never have an expiration. If they don't have the card, the card company should give you SOMETHING for the incredible gamble you took on buying their product. I'm sure this has been mentioned by collectors around the country but it's one of the reasons we hate HATE redemption cards.

2) They take away from the present value of a box. I've seen so many rips where people are upset that they got a redemption because they know just how long these can take to get in. While it's nice to pull a Dan Marino John Elway autograph, it also sucks to know you might never get it. You may end up getting a replacement product that may not be what you wanted or the value might not be comparable. I've seen people get screwed like this many times on the Beckett message boards as well as other forums.

In short, redemption cards are a big trouble in our hobby and I hope it's something that will eventually go away. Blowing up Topps' Facebook page and Panini's Twitter feed may not get immediate results but perhaps eventually the message will get through.