Go to Hell Topps

This time I've had enough Topps. You've dicked me over for the last time.

I have noticed in recent years that whenever I seem to pull any key cards out of Topps products that they are miscut or damaged, fresh out of the pack or box.

It started with my buying a 2005 Update/Highlights set, only to open the box and find out that every Draft Pick RC was miscut 30/70. Every other card in the set was fine, except for these. The rookie cards that everybody who buys the set buys it for.

In 2006 and 2007 I pulled numerous RC that were miscut or had a nice ding in one of the corners. We won't even discuss the $200 I spent on 2007 Topps Series 1 before I got the frigging Jeter card. Or how I ended up spending $400 on all three series and was still 100 cards short of a set, forcing me to just give up and go out and buy factory sets, bringing my total to around $500. JUST TO PUT TOGETHER A GODDAMNED TOPPS SET! (I haven't opened up these factory sets yet, but I'll bet the price I paid for them that the Jeter and Chamberlain cards are miscut or damaged...)

So it was with this knowledge that I picked up six packs of 2008 Topps Heritage at my local Target this past Saturday. When I opened them I had two cards that were 20/80, while the rest of them were cut perfectly.

I knew before I even looked them up.

#445 Kason Gabbard and #493 Matt Holliday were both SP. The only two SP cards out of the six packs.

I don't even collect Heritage, other than Tigers' cards, but it's the same old shit from Topps year after year. So I wrote them a little letter.

To whom it may concern:

I've been a collector of Topps baseball products for 31 years, but I am happy to say that I will no longer be buying any Topps products.

I've spent over $400 trying to complete my 2007 Topps set, and it is still not complete. In fact I finally gave up and went out and purchased the factory sets for Series 1 & 2 and the Update/Highlights set at a cost of another $100 total.

2008 Topps Series 1 didn't fare much better. Roughly $200 spent to get a complete set. 

It is frustrating beyond belief to try and build a set when every pack has an insert card inside, especially some such nonsense as 37 Kenji Jojima inserts. 

Today is the final straw. I purchased 6 packs of the 2008 Topps Heritage. I got two SP cards in those packs. They are enclosed with this letter. Every card in the packs is perfectly cut and centered except these two. It seems more than a coincidence that the two SP cards would be of this poor production. 

In fact I am quite convinced that Topps has resorted to poor production, poor quailty control, poor collation, and the inclusion of over 600 insert cards in some sets purely as a mean to sell product, no longer caring that their long time set building customers can no longer build nice conditioned sets within a reasonable cost. 

I am sure my letter will fall on deaf ears, but I feel better for having written it. It saddens me that the company who should be at the forefront of producing quality cards at reasonable prices has resorted to such disgusting tactics in an effort to increase sales. 

I don't wish for you to replace my cards. Feel free to keep them and give them to someone else. But do know that I will no longer spend money on your products. 

Sincerely

Me

So there. I decided I am no longer buying any Topps products if they are purposefully going to screw their loyal customers just so they can sell more cards.

But as fate would have, I had to return to Target tonight to pick up some groceries. Of course they put the cards right next to the open register. And I did get two Tigers cards Saturday.

In a moment of weakness I picked up three packs of Heritage. This card was in the first pack. I knew without even looking it up.

Yep, you guessed it. Short print.

So now this really is it. I am offically no longer buying any Topps products. At least none in packs from Target.