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- Aug 7, 2008
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We've all had that moment, you are ripping through a pack/box/case and coming to the place where you are expecting to see that big hit. Sure enough, something different is there but it's not a shiny autographed card with a single digit serial number on it. It's a thin piece of cardboard that probably says on it "congratulations" and then proceeds to tell you that this piece of paper holds a code that entitles you to a certain card on a website that may or may not come within the next 6 months. Many of us would read that as "congratulations, you're screwed!" or perhaps the words you hear in your head are much less family friendly.
However, this isn't to say that we don't understand what the manufacturers have to deal with. Professional athletes operate on their own time schedules and as much as we think like Copernicus that the world revolves around the signing of our pieces of cardboard (wait...wasn't it the sun..nevermind), atheltes might beg to differ. I waited 6 months for A.J. Green to sign 20 stinking jerseys...I mean, he's perhaps a top 5 receiver in the NFL, people like him have got to make time for me! All this to say, redemptions are likely a necessity (hopefully in small numbers) of producing a card product.
So last night as I'm ripping my second case of Leaf Metal Draft, I see the dreaded piece of white paper. Only this time I was excited! It wasn't just because I was enjoying a delicious batch of enchiladas I had whipped up either. I was excited because due to the fact that Brian Gray is a collector as well as a manufacturer, he understands our redemption inflicted pain. He relates to the common man...err sorry, that's a political line. He's going to save Big Bird and have show used feather autos...err sorry, another political line. Brian tries to innovate to turn negative into a positive (gosh, that's a line from Flo Rida's "Wild Ones...) and a redemption now means that I get to go punch in my code and then open a "virtual pack" which could contain any assortment of parallels and up to 5 total cards. It's quite the nice pay off for not having the physical card in your hand. Alternatively, I could sell my redemption like many have on eBay - http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=2012+leaf+redemption&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc and all of a sudden a redemption becomes a very very nice hit.
Honestly, it's one of the nicest (even if it is small) innovations we've seen in the card hobby for some time. Brian intro'd his live break of Leaf Metal by mentioning that he's the most polarizing figure on FCB - hard to disagree with that. Much of that is likely related to the fact that Leaf and Brian often do things that are different. Different is sometimes good and sometimes bad - in the case of these redemptions, it's very good.
Anyone buying these up just for a chance to "rip a virtual pack?"
However, this isn't to say that we don't understand what the manufacturers have to deal with. Professional athletes operate on their own time schedules and as much as we think like Copernicus that the world revolves around the signing of our pieces of cardboard (wait...wasn't it the sun..nevermind), atheltes might beg to differ. I waited 6 months for A.J. Green to sign 20 stinking jerseys...I mean, he's perhaps a top 5 receiver in the NFL, people like him have got to make time for me! All this to say, redemptions are likely a necessity (hopefully in small numbers) of producing a card product.
So last night as I'm ripping my second case of Leaf Metal Draft, I see the dreaded piece of white paper. Only this time I was excited! It wasn't just because I was enjoying a delicious batch of enchiladas I had whipped up either. I was excited because due to the fact that Brian Gray is a collector as well as a manufacturer, he understands our redemption inflicted pain. He relates to the common man...err sorry, that's a political line. He's going to save Big Bird and have show used feather autos...err sorry, another political line. Brian tries to innovate to turn negative into a positive (gosh, that's a line from Flo Rida's "Wild Ones...) and a redemption now means that I get to go punch in my code and then open a "virtual pack" which could contain any assortment of parallels and up to 5 total cards. It's quite the nice pay off for not having the physical card in your hand. Alternatively, I could sell my redemption like many have on eBay - http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=2012+leaf+redemption&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc and all of a sudden a redemption becomes a very very nice hit.
Honestly, it's one of the nicest (even if it is small) innovations we've seen in the card hobby for some time. Brian intro'd his live break of Leaf Metal by mentioning that he's the most polarizing figure on FCB - hard to disagree with that. Much of that is likely related to the fact that Leaf and Brian often do things that are different. Different is sometimes good and sometimes bad - in the case of these redemptions, it's very good.
Anyone buying these up just for a chance to "rip a virtual pack?"
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