Monday, April 16, 2012

Upper Deck Redemption Lawsuit

The other day I was on www.beckett.com and came across this article:

http://www.beckett.com/news/2012/04/upper-deck-loses-court-case-over-redemption-cards/

Then now I have to rant. First off, Upper Deck, why didn't you check the rules before you sent a non full time employee to the case???!! You lost what should have been a winnable case because of that move. But that isn't my main rant. My main rant involves the plaintiff in this case. Any card collector, especially us seasoned vets, knows, first off, Upper Deck doesn't have an MLB license. Secondly, we know that every product for any company is bound to have redemptions that are "time sensitive" not to mention those words are put right on the outside of every card box. And thirdly, we all know that buying older product is a risk especially when it comes to the chance of finding a redemption or 2.

To me, I avoid buying anything a 1 year old. Its just what I stick by and what I recommend other collectors stick by. I would not want to buy lets say a 2007 MLB product because its cheaper and a product I love then pull a Nolan Ryan autographed redemption card that is worthless. Something that had a date that was dated for 2010 that can no longer be used. Something you can give to your dog for a toy. I avoid all of their older product due to that. These are things every true card collector knows. And especially when it comes to Upper Deck who could no longer legally make those cards anyways because of lack of licenses. The cards were never made because the athlete hadn't gotten the cards back to Upper Deck. Which opens a whole new debate over redemptions. Should companies skip out on Star players just to make sure all autos are in the product?? I can go both ways on that topic. But we will save that for another day.

In closing, it just infuriates me that a guy who claims to be a collector knew none of this. Then wins the battle because Upper Deck made a mistake. I know as you will see when you click on the link that Upper Deck has a lot of lawsuits coming down on them, but this one should have been an easy victory. However, by the plaintiff winning this case this could have opened a whole new can of worms in a negative way. And not just for Upper Deck, but for the overall hobby we love.

Any of you agree or disagree with me or with the case? Any thoughts?

9 comments:

  1. I Agee with you.
    April Wilson

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  2. I agree. You research anything you buy that is just comon sense. I get tired of looking on the UD everyday and seeing someone upset because the pulled a expired redemption card. It is a simple fix pick up a Beckett and see what cards were redemptions before you buy the old product. But UD did drop the ball on this one.

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  3. I am the collector you are talking about and you are flat-out wrong. If Upper Deck had sent a team of 10 attorneys to this case, the company would still have lost. In addition, I happen to like older products and honestly didn't know anything about the redemptions when I purchased the product. Not every "collector" is going to know about redemptions. A 9-year old boy who opens a cool box of cards with a possible Lincecum auto won't know anything about these redemptions. He shouldn't have to look at Beckett before any purchase. The law doesn't require you to look at Beckett before you make a purchase. What happens if this kid buys the box and then hits a Lincecum redemption and UD tells him to go take a flying leap? It's not right. The hobby should change. Redemptions must end or deadlines should be put on boxes as a warning for people. You need to open your mind.

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    1. You do make some good points. On boxes it does say may contain time sensitive redemption cards, but maybe they should fix that and put the dates that they are time sensitive for on the outside. Maybe even put the warning on the top of the box and not the bottom. And online places that sell them should post it on their sites. And it would be great if redemption would just end. But it could hurt the hobby if the top players don't get the cards back in time for the product release and all we can end up pulling from a box is some no-name player. Who would buy cards anymore? In some ways, I wished autographs weren't apart of the hobby because of this reason.

      I, myself have had cards I couldn't get back because they were expired and because Upper Deck didn't have a license to give me the card anymore. But, because of that, not just with Upper Deck either, I won't buy any companies older product over a year. Way too risky.

      Thanks for your opinion.

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    2. There's a very simple solution that's already being utilized for other reasons. Release the inserts in series (1,2,3,etc). If top players haven't gotten their cards back in time for release, add them to the later series release and announce which players are delayed. That way, buyers will know what to expect and eventually, players will stop lagging for fear of bad publicity. It ain't rocket science people.

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  4. yes all points are valid and i have been buying upper deck products for more than 25 years. redemptions are a touchy subject for me because upper deck is the worst and takes the longest to redeem them. i redeemed some from panini, topps, and upper deck in febuary and upper deck is the only one who i had to request a replacement from for a scrub player that failed to sign and even after that its been over a month and i still have no card...lol meaning their cust service is horrible i called yesterday and they said it would take them 8 to 12 more weeks to mail my replacement card. upper deck dont have a license because they wanted more and wanted to spend less for it and thats not good business for the collector and the company. as of right now i wont buy their products again until they get licensing back! with them being all college there are no true rookie cards meaning topps and panini should have record years this year! meaning upper deck needs to focus on taking care of their customer base because the look like a over rated press pass and sage hit right now!

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  5. Sorry but Upper Deck is flat out wrong with their stance on expired redemption cards. The company is complicit in helping card dealers charge exorbitant premiums for old unopened products. There is no reason to have an a redemption card for a card where only five copies are produced expire. Most high dollar redemption cards have extremely limited print runs and therefore should not take up a large amount of storage space. If the product is on the market, Upper Deck should expect to honor the claims of its product no matter how old it is. For example, my dad found coupons for reynolds wrap from the 1960s when my grandmother died and sent them in to the company. He got a check back for the amount of the coupons. There is no reason that Upper Deck cannot provide at least something for their inability to include the actual card in packs. Not honoring expired redemption cards in anyway is flat out fraud. The bottom line is that by not honor the expired cards Upper Deck tells us that a) they don't care about the customer, and b) are not interested in making sure consumers receive good value for their hard earned money. I don't think you (author of the article above) or Upper Deck employees would appreciate being paid in expired checks, so I expect better treatment than a big middle finger when I pull an expired redemption card. That is not asking too much.

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    1. I was only agreeing to the licensed product part. They can't give you what they don't have. that being said, they should replace it with what they are licensed with now.

      I have myself taken it hard myself with Upper Deck product. My point was just that they can't do the cards they are not licensed to anymore and all of us should be aware of it.I think the person who sued should have known ahead of time the risk of buying old product. I got ripped off from a couple of boxes that were missing hits for NFL products. They did nothing. I no longer buy their old product knowing they will not do anything if a hit is missing or there is a redemption.

      I was not agreeing that what Upper Deck did was right. I don't think they should have been sued. They should have done the right thing and given the guy something. However, redemptions do expire for all companies, Upper Deck don't have licenses for a lot of sports, and they always post on Facebook and their blog basically warning us about their older product and the risks of buying them. I was just pointing out all of us experienced collectors would have known better than to have purchase older product knowing that they don't have a license and that redemptions expire.

      However, that is an awesome story about the Reynolds wrap. And thanks for your opinion.

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  6. I only buy cards(singles) off ebay because of redemptions. It is ridiculous that there are redemptions to begin with! If you cant get there auto dont include them and adjust the price if need be! and upper deck is screwing basketball fans out of getting lebron and Jordans anymore making panini and topps basketball pathetic to me, if I dont have a chance to pull the two best of all time and my two favorites why the hell would I pay for a box(case). Upper deck is wrong and so is every other company who makes redemptions you do not get what you pay for you get an I Owe You, Thats how our economy got to where it is, why follow that mold. The best product ever would be a NO BASE CARDS< REDEMTION FREE< AND NO WORTHLESS AVG PLAYER BENCH RIDER CARDS NOBODY WANTS THEM . for those who collect sets, sell the base sets seperate. Problem solved, no more court cases, customers happy getting value and great product, companies happy because they are having record sales!. REDEMTIONS SUCK!!!! DONT BUY OLD BOXES?CASES youll get screwed! Happy collecting

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