Tabs

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Sacrificing quality for speed

A couple weeks ago, one of the latest Topps OnDemand sets issued three new cards for their 150 Years of Baseball set. From what I can tell, they issue three of these at a time. Collectors can buy them individually from Topps, or as a bundle.

Not wanting to buy all three, I turned to trusted eBay for a seller who was pre-selling one of these cards. I purchased one for under $5 shipped, and then waiting another two weeks for the card to arrive.

Once it did, I was very underwhelmed. 

I know that from some of these OnDemand issues I've previously gotten, the cards tend to not be the greatest quality. Look no further than Topps Total. But I couldn't believe how bad this particular card was.

The photo, taken from the 1998 World Series and used on several Topps cards, was blurry and of poor quality. The entire card felt cheap to me. Something I'd expect from a non-licensed company or app where one might make his own custom trading cards. In that instance, I'd get it. But from Topps? I expect more.

I expect sharper photos and better printing. I expect a sturdier feeling card. I expect something that doesn't feel like I just grabbed it from my HP2600 series printer.

I know that Topps likes to turn these around quickly, but I'm sure I'm not alone in being willing to wait a few days longer if it meant a better end product.

I was happy to see Tino as part of this set, and with the final print run being 686, I am glad to add it to my collection. But I can't say it'll go down as one of my favorite cards of his.

4 comments:

  1. Hopefully someone at Topps reads this and reports the feedback to someone who matters. I can't really comment on the quality of any On Demand cards, since I don't buy them very often, but I've always thought that it was a money grab for the company.

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  2. That really stinks. I know people like some of their on-demand sets (the living set seems to be pretty popular) but I dislike the concept in general and I'm definitely going to stay away now.

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  3. I bought one Topps on Demand card from Topps a few years ago. The card came poorly packaged, and bent up. Topps would not replace it. I have not bought a single card from them since, and I only buy the on demand cards once the seller has them in hand. It would be nice if Topps learned from their quality control issues, but they wont.

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  4. That's a bummer I just order a couple of Robin Younts card, who it looks like was in the last round of the series, as Topps has removed the 150th Anniversary set from their On-demand menu. I will say Topps has improved how they ship their on-demand stuff and the Yount's will be my first of this issue, but I've been happy with the Living cards both Baseball and Starwars.

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