2012 Topps GOLDEN GIVEAWAY DIE CUTS FOR SALE!

After lots of thought, I have decided to sell off the die cut set that I won from Topps one card at a time plus some other die cuts I have in my online portfolio. I started these auctions at below the going price and plenty of them do not have any bids right now. So, feel free to place a bid on your favorite players here:

My 2012 Topps Die Cuts for Sale on EBay!!!


Check them out and let me know if you have any questions -- thanks!

Craig from Texas

2012 Topps Golden Moments 100 card COMPLETE SET!

Stop trading on the Topps Giveaway site!

Last Friday, I received an email from Topps stating this:

"Congratulations you were one of the first 100 users to unlock 200 codes on the Golden Giveaway site!  We appreciate your activity on the site and hope you continue to enjoy! 
 
Please be sure to populate your address information on the site, in order for us to send you prizes you MUST have this information updated in your profile.
 
You will receive a complete set of the base golden moment die cut cards, 100 cards in total.  We expect these cards to be available and ship mid-April.
 
You will also receive one 1/1 gold embed card, this card will be a special 1/1 card from our Golden Moments inserts in Topps Series 1.  The card you receive will be randomly pulled from those 100 subjects.  Please note this card will ship separate from your set of 100 die-cut cards and will most likely become available in June.  
 
Thank you again for your business and support!
 
Team Topps"

I have completed all of my 2012 Topps series one needs and have decided to sell my 2012 Topps Golden Moments Die Cut Complete Set. This set is very tough to build as you only get one card on average for every 20 codes entered. Here is your chance to buy the whole set:

2012 Topps Golden Moments 100 card Die Cut COMPLETE SET!!!


Now I will be focused on Topps Heritage as it will be out in a couple of weeks. Please become a follower of my blog!

Thanks!

Craig from Texas

Topps confirms the Golden Giveaway's GIVEAWAYS!

Topps has confirmed that the first 100 people who reached unlocking 200 codes in the Golden Giveaway promotion will receive the 100 card die cut set online, PLUS a 1/1 gold embedded Series One card! I will be receiving an email from Topps next week so stay tuned here for more details. I will be redeeming the set and the gold embedded card and selling them to the highest bidder. I might consider trades for Topps Heritage blue autographs or my vintage needs which can be found here:

My web site!!!!

Please check it out and visit my hall of Fame!!

Thanks -- and please become a follower of this blog if you are not already!

Craig from Texas

Topps Golden Giveaway finally yields a REAL GOLD CARD!!

Well, after thousands of codes entered, Topps FINALLY releases the first real GOLD card.



It would have been nice if Topps would have released at least one of these on the first day or two of the promotion. Many collectors are not happy with this promotion but yet it seems that people are still buying codes at $2 a pop. My question is, why?

Craig from Texas

Topps Golden Giveaway - CLARIFICATIONS NEEDED!!!

If you were like me and unlocked more than 200 coins and were among the first 100 to do so, you should be getting a complete set of 100 die cut cards from Topps. However, I am not sure exactly what I will be getting if I am one of the first 100. I contacted Topps and was told that the first 100 people will receive an email in two weeks. OK, that is fine with me. If you look at the picture on their web site in the lower righthand corner you will see what looks like a bunch of GOLD die cuts. These cards are supposedly numbered to 99 so I am sure these are not the cards we will receive although it would be nice of Topps to show a picture of what we will actually be receiving.

One other thing is that someone contacted Topps on Twitter and they were told that only 57 people have unlocked more than 200 coins. This was earlier today which is the third day of the promotion. I find this hard to believe as I am sure that thousands of codes have been entered. At this point, these thousands of codes have only generated the following:

A bunch of coins that seem useless at this point
Die cut cards which seem to be averaging one per 20-25 codes entered
14 gold die cuts numbered to 99. (Yes, just 14 gold die cuts after thousands of codes entered.)
ZERO prize cards -- yes, that is right. ZERO prize cards as the gold die cuts are not prize cards. Prize cards are cards in your portfolio which will allow your cards to ship for free.

Hardly an exciting promotion if you ask me. And I am not alone I am sure.

Another discrepancy is that if you click on "How It Works" in the upper right hand corner, in the fine print it clearly states:

"To make the Golden Giveaway even more fun and to reward those that unlock codes quickly the first 100 people to unlock 200 unique coins will automatically win a 1/1 Topps Series 1 card embedded with a 14K piece of gold, the subject of card will be random."

Is this in addition to the die cut set? I am not sure. However, I would not have entered all of my codes as fast as I did if this piece of information wasn't true. I would have waited and probably would have sold them due to the fact that not too many people are happy with this promotion.

Another thing that disappoints me about this promotion is that when I was reviewing the sell sheet for 2012 Topps Series One hear is what I was looking forward to....

GOLD TEAM COINS: Every MLB® team will be represented with a
Gold in five different denominations. As Gold Coins are unlocked, the
points will go into the collector’s Bank, and can be used to bid for
exciting prizes!

Collectors can also build their Coin collections, and as collection
milestones are reached, unlock even more prizes!
AUTOGRAPHED GOLD COIN CARD: 10 Gold Coins will be physically
reproduced and embedded in a card, along with an autograph of a star
from that team! Signed on card and sequentially numbered to 5!
Points can also be used to bid on the ultimate Die-Cut Chrome Card!

Obviously, these things are not a part of the promotion. At least not yet. Hopefully Topps will step up to the plate and deliver!

Topps Golden Giveaway Die Cuts

So what are the value for the die cuts? Depends on who you ask. For a long time one could get 100 codes for $200. With these 100 codes, most people are only getting 4 or 5 die cut cards. So one could say that the value of the die cuts are $40 or $50 each. However, Topps has estimated each card at $2 each if you read their fine print on their Golden Giveaway site. My guess is that these cards will initially book high and as the promotion continues, will fall in value just like last year's die cuts did. More die cuts will continue to be released thus increasing the supply available. With more cards available, the price of these are sure to drop. It was my impression from reading the sale sheets that we would be able to use our coins to bid on prizes. There was also talk of an ultimate die cut card. Maybe Topps will add these things that they advertised. They also stated that there will be gold embedded 1/1 cards. Sadly, zero gold embedded 1/1 cards have been unlocked 48 hours into this promotion. It seems to me that since there has been no word from Topps in the way of advertising this promotion via Topps Facebook or Twitter accounts, or even their own web site, they pretty much expected this promotion to be not as exciting as last year and as in 2010. However, Topps still could come through if they announce a list of prizes that collectors can bid on with all those coins they have accumulated. They should do something or the series 2 and update sets will not sell very well. What are your thoughts? Let's hear them!

The Topps “Fool’s Gold” Promotion!

Or so it seems to most collectors. There has been a backlash of negative comments over yesterday’s launch of the 2012 Topps Golden Giveaway that has caused a stir among collectors. What is all the fuss about you may ask? Most people are complaining that have bought a bunch of codes and all they are getting in return is a bunch of virtual coins and very few if any die cut cards. Here is my own personal take on the promotion so far:

Yesterday after lunch I check online and I see the news – “the Golden Giveaway site is live!” Live? I didn’t think it would be live until later. I immediately go to the web site and take a look around. Yep – it’s live all right. But I am at work and do not have my 220 codes with me. From the teaser site that has been up for a few weeks now, I know that if I am among the first 100 people to enter codes and get 200 coins, I get a complete set of 100 Golden Moments die cut cards. I thought I might have a good chance as long as I entered them as soon as I got home because most people are at work right now and most people might not know that the site is live. If only I could get away from work and enter the 220 codes! However, I had a meeting in an hour and didn’t think that I would have time to do so even though I live only five minutes away from work. Since I did not have my codes with me to enter, I decided to read up on the rules and then I came across this piece of information:

“To make the Golden Giveaway even more fun and to reward those that unlock codes quickly the first 100 people to unlock 200 unique coins will automatically win a 1/1 Topps Series 1 card embedded with a 14K piece of gold, the subject of card will be random.”

Now, after reading this I knew from the teaser that there were only 90 “unique” coins so I assumed that they meant 200 total coins and not necessarily unique ones. So I am thinking that since I am at work, I am going to miss out on my chance to win a complete 100 card set of Golden Moments AND a 1/1 Gold Embedded card!! So then I decided to make a break for it. I sped home and quickly entered 220 codes just as fast I could. A little trick I learned from prior giveaways is that you do not have to capitalize the letters as they are printed on the code cards. This made it a lot faster. I kept looking at the time knowing I had to get back to work since I could not miss the start of my meeting. I couldn’t believe it – I actually entered 220 codes in 40 minutes. After doing so, these were my results:

220 codes entered
10 Golden Moments Regular Cards
0 Golden Moments Gold Cards
210 common coins
No prize cards or rare coins

So basically I got 10 cards out of 220 coins. I wasn’t too happy. Not only that, after I passed the 200 coin mark, there was no notification that I was one of the first 100. Dang it! I went online and my results were about the same as others. One member of a popular forum had these results and needless to say he was very disappointed:

839 codes entered
26 Golden Moments Regular Cards
0 Golden Moments Gold Cards
813 common coins
No prize cards or rare coins

After my meeting, I went ahead and contacted Topps. Not to complain because I know they will have their hands full dealing with people who will be complaining. I contacted them to ask how we are notified if we were among the first 100 people to enter enough codes to collect 200 coins. I actually did get a response stating that winners will be notified within two weeks. So, I am hoping to get the 100 card set plus a 1/1 gold embedded card. If this happens, I would be satisfied with the promotion.

When I got home and played on the site some more and read more about it, the less I got interested in it. Why? Mainly because last year, that if you had a black diamond card in your collection, you got your cards shipped for free. These black diamond cards were highly desired by collectors and were serially numbered to 99. I traded a few of these black diamond cards for some valuable vintage cards that I needed for the sets I am working on. This year, the Golden Moments Gold Cards are very similar to the Black Diamond cards in that they too are numbered to 99. However, they are NOT free shippers. The only way to have your cards shipped for free is to have a gold embedded or autograph card in your collection. And what exactly are the odds of getting a prize card? This is straight from the Official Rules:

Prize cards:
A special 1/1 version of the Golden Moments Card of each of the 100 players in the Golden Moments Card set which contains an actual piece of 14 karat gold, odds 1:20,000.
A special 1/1 version of the 2012 Topps Series One of each of the 330 players in the 2012 Topps Baseball Series 1 card set which contains an actual piece of 14 karat gold, odds 1:3,030.

So your chances of having a free shipper are not that good! Not only that but as I write this, there have only been six gold die cuts and ZERO 1/1 gold embedded cards. By now I am positive that there have been thousands of codes entered and to have only 6 gold cards that will be numbered to 99 showing up to this point is not going to rest well with collectors. It seems that Topps is holding back the good stuff since this promotion will last all year. Two years ago, I entered about 300 codes on the first day of the giveaway and was very happy to receive about 30 cards from the 50’s including a couple 1952 cards. This year is definitely a different story.

Since I only have 10 of these base cards and being a set builder at heart, I will not be pursuing this set. Trading will not do me much good since I am not a player or team collector. I think I will cash in my 10 cards but before I cash in I am going to wait to see if I am one of the first 100 to reach 200 coins. Maybe I am and I will be given this set and a 1/1 gold embedded online to redeem. If so, maybe I can get the 10 cards in my online collection shipped to me for free as well.

At this point, I do not think I will be buying anymore 2012 Topps like I planned on doing. Sure I will go ahead and collect the series 2 and update sets to continue my Topps run of sets, but I really hoped that this promotion would have kept me engaged like the promotions from the past two years.

What are your thoughts on this promotion? Do they differ from mine? Please let me know!

Thanks!

Craig from Texas

2012 Topps -- Enough with the GIMMICKS! Bring us value!

I have to admit that this year and for the past five or so years it has always been about the "gimmicks". From this year's "squirrel" to last year's "sparkles", to 2010's "Abe Lincoln" cards, I have had about enough. The only people that like these cards are people that get them inside packs so they can sell them to master set collectors. These gimmick cards remind me of the error card craze of 1989 to 1990. Dale Murphy error cards were selling for hundreds of dollars and then it seemed that every card manufacturer wanted in on the action and produced error cards on purpose. I would like to see more value placed in the cards. No gimmicks or errors -- give us collectors more value! Although 2012 Topps does boast some great name autos, these autos are so limited that it is nearly impossible for the average collector to obtain. Maybe the online promotion will provide the collectors with more value for the money they already have spent.

On another note, I would like to see Topps do away with sticker autographs and redemption cards. I am the type of collector that likes to hang on to old wax. There is nothing more frustrating than opening a box a few years later and getting a redemption card for something really cool only to find out that it has expired. I pulled a redemption card out of an older Topps Heritage pack for an original 1953 Topps #280 Milt Bolling with a BV of $350 only to find that the redemption card expired. Why do redemption cards have to have expiration dates anyway?

2012 Topps -- The TOP 10 list so far!!!!!

Check out the best of 2012 Topps that has sold so far. This list does not include buy it nows or best offers -- just traditional auction style format only. I also did not include a Derek Jeter card that sold for $450. The seller said it was a solid gold one of one but there was no picture associated with it and the sale could not be verified. Check out the top ten here:

The biggest selling cards for 2012 Topps so far!

Did you know a CUT AUTO sold? I was surprised that it sold for so little.

Check it out!!

Craig from Texas

The hottest Topps sold for the month of January....

Ever want to know what the highest priced cards are for a given month? These 30 cards are the highest selling cards for the month of January. I have listed three TOP Ten categories: 1887-1950, 1951-1979, and 1980-2011. These cards actually sold auction-style so it does not count for buy it nows or best offers. I was surprised at the prices of some of them. Let me know what you all think of the list:

The hottest cards for the month of January!

Also, please while you are there, check out the rest of my web site and my Hall of Fame!!

Thanks!

Craig from Texas

2012 Topps Shortprint list WITH PICTURES!

Hello gang --

I have compiled a complete list of 2012 Topps Shortprints with pictures so all you have to do is sort your cards in numerical order and then look at my list of 22 known SP cards to find out if you have one of these hard to find cards! I hope this list helps you -- here it is:

http://www.mytoppscards.com/2012shortprints.htm

Well I am off to get some more Topps!

Happy collecting!

Craig from Texas