or: “How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate Redemptions Even More”
Thanks to the Konami vs. Upper Deck counterfeiting lawsuit, as well as what is now another lawsuit brought about by MLB Properties (perhaps Topps will soon follow with their own), there’s been a lot of talk that Upper Deck may be on it’s way out the door or filing for Bankruptcy.
I don’t think anyone wants to see Upper Deck go out of business. I’d rather see them fire the executives in charge of approving these ridiculous decisions to counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and risking further damage by allowing unlicensed and un-airbrushed images of Major League Baseball logos and uniforms to appear on their two latest products.
But there’s something to consider if UD goes BK, something that could potentially hurt consumers even more.
You already hate redemptions, right? Well, what if I told you there’s a chance that if Upper Deck files for Bankruptcy you won’t be able to redeem those cards?
“How could it happen?” you ask. Does anyone remember when Sharper Image and Circuit City ran into trouble and filed for Bankruptcy? All those gift cards that were purchased couldn’t be used by consumers and people got mad. You see, gift cards are considered an outstanding debt in the company’s books until “cashed in.” If you file BK, depending on the Chapter type, you can’t pay back your debts.
I can see redemption cards working the same way. Like gift cards, redemptions represent something that the consumer has purchased and is now owed. We have to cash it in to get our value, just like going to the store and getting our pre-paid for merchandise via gift card. Now, if Upper Deck puts redemption cards into their books in this manner and file for Bankruptcy protection due to all the large settlements they can’t afford, there’s a good chance that redemptions could not be honored unless the Bankruptcy case is dismissed.
Will this happen? I have no clue. This is all just a theoretical situation that depends on a whole lot of different factors, most of which are not being made public knowledge and will not. But…to be safe, maybe send those suckers in if you have them.
Well, basically, if you had Fleer redemptions outstanding when that company went under, they were okay for a little while. After a certain time period you were outta luck, though – UD wouldn’t honor them and someone bought out Fleers stock of cards. And let me tell you… I’ve pulled a LOT of Fleer redemptions in the past few years that I wish I could redeem.
That’s a good point about Fleer. They didn’t exactly file Bankruptcy so they had some more flexibility in how they dispersed their assets and whatnot. Bankruptcy may take away any window of opportunity. But, yeah. If Upper Deck goes the Assignment for Benefit of Creditors route too, it’s another good reason to try to redeem as much as possible now.
But the real question is what does this mean for my 1993 Topps BlackGold set D redemption card?
This goes much farther back- you MUST know the whole past to go towards the future. Nothing that comes from me: James McCay aka CARDCOP has ever been a lie or exageration. I have proof of everything I’ve ever said or done. There’s a lot of jerks out their who took credit for things I’ve done becauase I don’t publicize my work, just that there are bad things going on in this hjobby & WE ALL NEED TO GET INVOLVED or it will never stop. The price guides will never do anything as Beckett’s Ex-President put it best from his moutrh to my ear “you do what we wish we could but cannot, all Beckett cares about is losing advertising dollars”. That wasn’t exactly word for wotrd but the idea was the exact same & I’ve been repeating it for over 12-years and Beckett never sued me. NOR HAS ANYONE I WENT AFTER IN THIS HOBBY SO I MUST BE DOING IT RIGHT! I bankrupted Pacific (by costing them their baseball licenase in 2001) for making fake game-used baseball jersey & bat cards in 2001 (and probably many more – if not ALL of them!). I also caused Donruss/Playoff to lose their baseball license too for so many kinds of fraud it would take too long to list it all now.
This started with Signature Rookies in 1995-96. They filed bankruptcy and while the owner was shipping out redemptions himself, the coutrts actually physically stopped him and secured ALL Signature Rookies (SR) items from him and his company and 95%+ of collectors owed tens of thousands of autographs got absolutely notrhing.
In late 1997 I got online for the first time at age 30, and started a collector fighting for other collectors website. I less than a month I was fully involved in fighting the Score Board (SB) banruptcy so that the same thing that happened with SR wouldn’t happen with SB. SB owed out much more expensive autographs and far more than SR so I knew what was at stake here. I went right after the judge who turned out to be a fewmale who didn’t have a clue what our hobby was about. I refused to give up writing letters every few days. In the end Beckett Basketball wrote a story about my efforts (last page) in the August 1998 issue (dual M.Jordan cover). This inspired Fleer to donate 5,000 autograph items to those who had proof they were owed a redemption. It was only one item per household & in the USA only, but it was something. I got to know a kid in Austalia who was owed a very expensive item, so I was fighting for him too. When Fleer locked him out I sent him what he wanted from my personal collection: a Joe DiMaggio autograph- the only one I owned. I never missed it one day!!!
I fought valiantly by myself for 40+hours a week (with a REAL job as an EKG Technologist at 40-hours a week) every week from 1997-2004 and never made, nor took a penny as any kind of profit for doing any of this work. I often offered to review boxes for card companies (from 1995-2002) and those cards were donated every year to hospitalized children, something I’ve done every year since 1989 right up until last year (2011). I devised a system where I’d be able to buy boxes of most products each year in baseball & football mostly, then I’d sell the best cards to break even and I’d donate everything else each December.
I became close friends with Gary Carter since he inspired me to make my first card donation and the Leukemia Society made a big deal aqbout it. We were on the TV News, in every NYC newspaper, hobby publications, and a live WFAN radio interview which was the scariest thing!!! I was only 23-years old but pulled it off from what I’ve heard. Gary is not dead, he’s alive in everyone’s mind who gets cheered up to the end of time simply thinking about that smile that puts one on your face…
In late 2001, I started getting bad leg pain, that turned out to be a degererative bone disease and I now have five ruptured disks in my neck & low back with very severe nerve damage including awful sciatica in both legs. Then I had two heart attacks from a medication, and finally was diagnosed with General Myasthenia Gravis in 2005. I’m now 45, I can’t walk more than one block ONE day a week if I’m lucky. I stay in bed all day & night because my pain goes to 10 out of 10 after sitting or standing for more than 2-hours. My pain never goes lower than 3 out of 10. I wish every day that I could still fight for this hobby, but physically I cannot.
ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE, I’M LIVING PROOF! IF PEOPLE READING THIS DO SOMETHING LIKE HOW I GOT STARTED – THERE’S NO TELLING HOW MUCH PERMANENT CHANGE FOR THE BETTER CAN BE CREATED!
GET GOING!!!
James
Queens, NY