Wikileaks hits Topps!!!

Okay, not really.

BUT, let's say thousands...no....MILLIONS of emails over the past 2 decades were released, and the CEO decides to get in front of this and answer every single question you may have. What would you ask?

At the top of my list, I'd probably ask:

1) What are the production numbers on everything
2) How much product goes unsold, and what they are
3) Which jersey cards are not 100% authentic game used
4) WHERE IS MY 2014 Canseco Strata redemption? He has had countless patch and auto cards between then and now.

What would your questions be?

Do you really only pay low A players $5.00 an auto ?

Anything about how redemptions are handled. Is there a smoking gun that they know they are putting out redemptions that have no chance of being fulfilled? How do they prioritize fulfilling them? Anything that would give a clue as to why, like you suggest, this card with a GU piece or sticker auto is unfulfilled while more recent ones are.

I'd also be curious about production numbers, especially on older stuff that predates email, but I imagine that might just not be there to be leaked. But pretty much any set now can be extrapolated from odds, at least somewhat. There is always the insoluble algebra of hobby vs jumbo vs retail, but you can get in the ballpark, I think.

But I'd be really curious about business info. How much does it cost to produce a set of cards? How much do MLB and MLBPA licenses cost? What sort of negotiations and machinations go into staying the sole official MLB card maker?

And I'd be curious about the nitty-gritty of making cards. Who does their design? It seems strange to me that so little is known about the graphic artists and printers that do some really amazing work (as well as some really crappy work). To me, they should be celebrated like other industrial designers. Lots of people know who Jony Ives is, or Raymond Loewy, or at least can find out who designed their favorite products. But who is the guy who came up with the design of 2011 Topps or 2015 Gypsy Queen? I should think that, while I'm sure it's a committee that tweaks and ultimately decides a design, and they're done by outside firms, there are just a couple people who really do most of the work and come up with most of the ideas. Those people should be known and, possibly advertised as a selling point. They have had Gallery sets where they featured artists, and the Dick Perez A&G cards and whatnot. But how about bringing the regular designers who do good work to the forefront. Actually, this applies more to UD as I really liked the UD aesthetic, but Topps is what we have.