109 Bowman Blue Wave Redemption Packs - Screwed

[Ian Stewart]

They need electronic redemptions to solve this. First 10,000 to enter code get packs.

How would that work? One per box?

 

[jcmint]

couldn't agree more, some here are totally missing the point

I can't agree with this more, Jim's motive in all this is irrelevant, if he got the shaft due either to an error by Topps, or outright fraud then it needs to be made right.

 

[goldenegg1]

Why would Topps do this period? Bowman sells well, very well, why the wrapper gimmick?
If they had to do this program, why not put a max of 50 packs or something like that? They are able to screw people out of autos because they never stated the odds of pulling these cards. I can't believe that anyone would expect Topps employees to be able to count, let alone figure out odds on this stuff. I wish someone else would give Selig a couple HJ's so they could get an MLB license like Eisner did.

 

[Russ S.]

couldn't agree more, some here are totally missing the point

Absolutely!
But you can't fix stupid.

 

[matfanofold]

Being a free bonus, and no stated odds that I am aware of, I'm not sure fraud or error could/would be measured. Dose it suck he did not get what he expected? Sure, can you really hold Topps responsible for the allocation? I'm not so sure... Obviously everyone here gets the point, but what some dispute here including me, is the theme that somehow one deserves reported secondary odds (*not stated) of a limited and free bonus. To the likes that retrobution should be made. Again, I think it stinks he did not get close to what he was expecting, but what really can you do? And on the flip side of the coin, if he had gotten an auto in every 3 packs, beating the reported secondary odds, whould he be trying to send them back? Would anyone be complaining about estimated odds then? But I digress.....

Yes, it stinks he was shafted.

 

[bballcardkid]

Being a free bonus, and no stated odds that I am aware of, I'm not sure fraud or error could/would be measured. Dose it suck he did not get what he expected? Sure, can you really hold Topps responsible for the allocation? I'm not so sure... Obviously everyone here gets the point, but what some dispute here including me, is the theme that somehow one deserves reported secondary odds (*not stated) of a limited and free bonus. To the likes that retrobution should be made. Again, I think it stinks he did not get close to what he was expecting, but what really can you do? And on the flip side of the coin, if he had gotten an auto in every 3 packs, beating the reported secondary odds, whould he be trying to send them back? Would anyone be complaining about estimated odds then? But I digress.....

Yes, it stinks he was shafted.

Completely agree. Yeah, the process sucks, there handling sucks, the fact that many counted on this wrapper redemption to help cover the cost of their wax but were shafted because they didn't get the number of autos they expected to get sucks, the auto pack / non auto pack seperation sucks, we all get it. Everyone involved has every right to bitch and moan...BUT you seem adamant that Topps should do something to compensate for your "loss," since you claim that this is unacceptable. That's completely different than complaining about another Topps blunder. What possibly do you expect Topps to do to rectify the situation? Send you autographs, more packs, more wax?

If you were that heavily invested into these packs, after seeing the early breaks was any indication, your best bet was to cash in at $20 per pack and pocket four figures worth of green instead of being greedy.

 

[danimal]

I just did a search of three message boards for Bowman Waves Beaks and have found 750 packs ripped and only 57 autos pulled. That is about one auto every 13 packs. That is 7.5% of the print run so either one of 2 things is happening, 1) Not all 38 subjects signed 50 cards or 2) Roughly 50% of the the autos are "disappearing".

 

[allstars]

If you were that heavily invested into these packs, after seeing the early breaks was any indication, your best bet was to cash in at $20 per pack and pocket four figures worth of green instead of being greedy.

AmEN! and amen to the odds being across the whole run. If you gamble and loose go get a tissue & move on, don't cry in public.

 

[gonzagacubs]

I will never understand people's sense of entitlement for something that was essentially an added free bonus. Entitlement is ruining this hobby.

 

[danimal]

I will never understand people's sense of entitlement for something that was essentially an added free bonus. Entitlement is ruining this hobby.

I don't think its a sense of entitlement so much as a sense of where are all the Blue Wave Autos? If they aren't going out to the folks who sent in the wrappers were are they going? I do find it a bit odd that after over 7% of the product has been ripped nearly half the "expected" autos are "missing"?

I think with this program being such a small release, only 10,000 packs, that anyone who had previously expected Topps of having employees "back door" product will really be able to have some "proof" - where is card cop?

This weekend and early next week it looks like most of the big breakers will be getting their packs and will see for what I believe is the first time a verifiable significant percentage of a full print run being busted.

We could see 40-50% of the entire run busted on a few boards and if the autos continue to run 1 in 13 packs then it can pretty well be assumed that either not all 38 players signed 50 cards or nearly half the autos aren't making out of the Topps distribution center.

This could be fun for conspiracy theorists! I am going to sign off now and put my tin foil hat back on.

 

[lisu]

They probably did something like every 13 packs would have 1 autograph pack, so that the people who submitted smaller amounts of packs would have a better chance at an autograph.

 

[tm decomposer]

And ya know, that was still bullshiz. One thing that a lot of us on BMB noted, that never came out, was that they swapped the production numbers on the gold redemption vs. the xfractor redemptions. THere were always 2x the gold refractor sets vs. the xfractor redemtions... the golds were allegedly limited to 50 and xfractors to 125, but I remember counting over 40 gold redemption sets and less than 20 xfractors.

Meh.

Thanks for replying to my 5 past messages via PM! Appreciate it!

 

[tm decomposer]

On the whole: they are free packs. You were probably buying the same amount of wax that you would have bought, even without the mail-in redemption. They are giving away free cards.

Some people just don't collect the way I was taught to collect. Reminds me of when I used to play MLB Showdown and the kids would get boxes and throw out the base cards. Well, I was the kid digging in the garbage, getting the base cards. You hit an auto, you should be siked. Topps doesn't owe you anything because you are the ones fueling their business.

 

[lisu]

They probably did something like every 13 packs would have 1 autograph pack, so that the people who submitted smaller amounts of packs would have a better chance at an autograph.

I got 1 auto in my 13 packs.

 

[Maroon and Gold]

How would that work? One per box?

And then the server crashes for those with slower internet, and you get people trying to mass-type fake codes, and some codes aren't uploaded to the system right away.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Thanks for replying to my 5 past messages via PM! Appreciate it!

huh?

 

[Casebusters]

Topps is playing games with these Blue Wave Redemption packs, or maybe it's just poor underpaid customer service reps making some money on the side. The packs for each customer are being hand collated. They have boxes labeled Auto Packs, Non Auto Packs, Red Wave Packs. I know this because they shipped 78 of my packs inside a box that said "NON AUTO PACKS", it was loosely scratched off, but still easily readable. I emailed Mark Sapir at Topps about it. Explained my concern. He forwarded my email to Kathy Scoda who stated that she did insert autos and tried to scratch the sticker off but didn't want to ruin the box, and he replied back to me "fyi". Based upon the odds, Red Wave should fall every 3.6 packs, Autos every 5.3 packs. Out of my 109 packs, I hit 29 Red Wave cards which was EXACTLY spot on the odds. Out of my 109 packs I hit 4 autos. Yes, 4. Based upon the odds, I should have hit 20. I emailed Mark again, to which I got no reply. I called customer service about an hour and a half ago and after mentioning my concern was immediately hung up on. I tried calling back 2 more times and couldn't get through. Tried one more time and reached a CS rep that didn't hang up. She fed me a line about no stated odds, to which I informed her that this was unacceptable. I hit exactly the odds on red waves, but hit 1/5th the odds on Autos? If CS reps know which packs have autos (which they do) what exactly is stopping them from back-dooring these cards? She notified me that she would pass my request on to her supervisor and I should hear back in about a day.

Here is a pick of the box. Another guy on Blowout also had the same issue with the same boxes.
View attachment 2722

I opened my 184 packs
Received 45 Reds and 11 autos 1:16 packs
I also received 147 of them in 2 boxes (and 37 in an envelope)
1 box like the one pictured above only had 3 autos

Thinking about it, I was shorted 7 packs and if you add 7 autos to my total, would have been 18 autos. 1:10 like some were saying...
Oh well,
I did ok..
All will be available on my site shortly

 

[schmidtfan20]

These were free packs? really? I spent money to get the wrappers. You either bought packs or you bought wrappers. Who got free packs? The bottom line
is topps didn't have their crap together. They made a promise BEFORE the product hit to in order to sell packs. They said everyone who got them in my Monday
would be good, that was obviously BS. Why do we continue to give these monkeys a free pass? 7 packs costs a hell of a lot of money, topps constantly makes
promises that they don't keep. There is no policing in the hobby so please, don't take our right to bitch away! Topps deserves 100% of it.

Kevin

 

[tm decomposer]

huh?

Adam Morgan Contenders auto, did you not receive any of the PMs?

 

[200lbhockeyplayer]

Let's pause for a minute and watch eBay as people are still buying wrappers.