2022 Topps Chrome Fiasco. Is This The Future?

[detroitbball]

Don’t know how many on here follow baseball. But Topps has made a mess of Chrome Baseball This Year
1. Had top rookies on the checklist as extended short prints, but after two days of the world breaking boxes, none have surfaced. None
2. Auto redemptions of top rookies. Hugely watered down checklist as opposed to previous years
3. Huge QC issues. Horrible centering. Bowed cards. Bricking.
As a result collectors who pre ordered or bought into breaks were walking away with almost no value. (More so than you would normally expect with Chrome.
One poster over in the baseball section said a prominent breaker was actually giving compensation to customers because of it. So question: Has Panini ever pulled a stunt like this? Has Topps just gone downhill? Or is this the future with Fanatics taking control?

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by detroitbball

Don’t know how many on here follow baseball. But Topps has made a mess of Chrome Baseball This Year
1. Had top rookies on the checklist as extended short prints, but after two days of the world breaking boxes, none have surfaced. None
2. Auto redemptions of top rookies. Hugely watered down checklist as opposed to previous years
3. Huge QC issues. Horrible centering. Bowed cards. Bricking.
As a result collectors who pre ordered or bought into breaks were walking away with almost no value. (More so than you would normally expect with Chrome.
One poster over in the baseball section said a prominent breaker was actually giving compensation to customers because of it. So question: Has Panini ever pulled a stunt like this? Has Topps just gone downhill? Or is this the future with Fanatics taking control?

Pretty much every mid-to-high-end Panini release for the past few years….

[oldgoldy97]

Base...ball?

What is this game you speak of?

[mc1]

Originally Posted by detroitbball

Don’t know how many on here follow baseball. But Topps has made a mess of Chrome Baseball This Year
1. Had top rookies on the checklist as extended short prints, but after two days of the world breaking boxes, none have surfaced. None
2. Auto redemptions of top rookies. Hugely watered down checklist as opposed to previous years
3. Huge QC issues. Horrible centering. Bowed cards. Bricking.
As a result collectors who pre ordered or bought into breaks were walking away with almost no value. (More so than you would normally expect with Chrome.
One poster over in the baseball section said a prominent breaker was actually giving compensation to customers because of it. So question: Has Panini ever pulled a stunt like this? Has Topps just gone downhill? Or is this the future with Fanatics taking control?

Yes on 2 and 3. Many redemptions for top rookies that will never be fulfilled and maybe theyll give you 1000 points as replacement.

[mikejones]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Pretty much every mid-to-high-end Panini release for the past few years….

True


Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

[detroitbball]

Ok. True Panini has had poor quality and watered down products for sure. Where Topps seemed to take it to a new level was leading everyone to believe there would be highly sought after shorted printed rookies in the set, and then when it released, they were no where to be found (at least so far). That seemed a “bridge too far” when combined with poor quality and an already watered down checklist. I don’t ever recall Panini pulling a stunt like that, and I’m hoping this is not the influence of Fanatics, or we will all be dealing with this sort of thing for a long time.

[Aultimate21]

Originally Posted by detroitbball

Ok. True Panini has had poor quality and watered down products for sure. Where Topps seemed to take it to a new level was leading everyone to believe there would be highly sought after shorted printed rookies in the set, and then when it released, they were no where to be found (at least so far). That seemed a “bridge too far” when combined with poor quality and an already watered down checklist. I don’t ever recall Panini pulling a stunt like that, and I’m hoping this is not the influence of Fanatics, or we will all be dealing with this sort of thing for a long time.

Wasn’t there something with Odell Beckham national treasures auto that didn’t show up to wave 2 or 3? He was a huge chase in 2014

[detroitbball]

An analogy might be this: It might be equivalent to Panini saying, "sorry we didn't have enough time to get Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley into the base checklist for Prizm. But we will have an extended checklist of short prints with Cade and Evan. And then the hobby boxes finally come out and there are no short prints to be found anywhere.

So now all the Chrome baseball collectors are trying to figure out if they should not open their hobby boxes, if maybe the SPs might show up in retail, or in some SKU sold by Fanatics, or if the whole thing was just a ruse to sell product. They just don't know what's going on and their are pretty steamed about it.

And they can't stash their hobby boxes because all lot of the key autos are showing up as redemptions, and Topps will only honor redemptions for two years.

[oldgoldy97]

The rules for NBA rookies are pretty clear.

Now, mocking up autos that don’t show up in a set is a different story but it’s happened in every sport.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by Aultimate21

Wasn’t there something with Odell Beckham national treasures auto that didn’t show up to wave 2 or 3? He was a huge chase in 2014

Yes! Now I remember that. Panini of course denied, denied and denied any such shenanigans.

[Nomad]

Popcorn time. Nothing more enjoyable on Youtube than irate breakers and chat.

[yiguiri2002]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Pretty much every mid-to-high-end Panini release for the past few years….

Originally Posted by mikejones

True


Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

What? Outside of 3, when did Panini have issues with 1 or 2?

[imbluestreak23]

I believe so

[Archangel1775]

Originally Posted by detroitbball

Don’t know how many on here follow baseball. But Topps has made a mess of Chrome Baseball This Year
1. Had top rookies on the checklist as extended short prints, but after two days of the world breaking boxes, none have surfaced. None
2. Auto redemptions of top rookies. Hugely watered down checklist as opposed to previous years
3. Huge QC issues. Horrible centering. Bowed cards. Bricking.
As a result collectors who pre ordered or bought into breaks were walking away with almost no value. (More so than you would normally expect with Chrome.
One poster over in the baseball section said a prominent breaker was actually giving compensation to customers because of it. So question: Has Panini ever pulled a stunt like this? Has Topps just gone downhill? Or is this the future with Fanatics taking control?

1. They don't brick, no way. Bricking is when the surface of the cards fuse together
2. What was MSRP supposed to be? People paying obscene amounts above that were foolish especially without seeing the checklist. That checklist was released only a few days before the product release. It was also *subject to change

[CicadaMound]

1. Had top rookies on the checklist as extended short prints, but after two days of the world breaking boxes, none have surfaced. None

Basketball rookies work differently from baseball rookies, because the top prospects (generally) play and have cards the year they're drafted. This means early sets have every good rookie, and there are only rare issues with undrafted players, and, going forward, possibly Overtime Elite or G League Ignite players. Baseball rookies have to have cards after they're called up, instead of after they're drafted, so later sets can have late additions added after the base set is printed and inserted in the insert slot of the packs.

However Topps apparently has a recurring issue with insert sets not being inserted in packs - Allen & Ginter Wood Minis one year, and now these. This is a problem with the printer/Topps' relationship to the printer, and hopefully the new Fanatics management will make a bigger effort to correct it.

2. Auto redemptions of top rookies. Hugely watered down checklist as opposed to previous years

Redemptions are a player relationship issue, and possibly an overprinting issue - it's harder to get people to sign more cards. The new Fanatics management might help.

Watered down checklists are a print run issue, and if demand flags, checklist quality will go up. See: Panini Donruss Baseball vs Topps Series 1. It's WAY easier to hit numbered cards in Donruss than Topps Flagship, because it's got less demand and they have to juice the quality to move units.

3. Huge QC issues. Horrible centering. Bowed cards. Bricking.

QC issues include centering, and are a result of overprinting. Higher demand means less attention can be paid to each product and quality can go down. Chromium printing in particular has way less capacity and the high demand hit it harder.

Bowing and bricking are engineering problems with the stock, but you can mitigate bricking more. Bowing has to do with chrome stock, the front and back are made out of different materials and they're affected by the environment in different ways. The 70's lenticular cards have the same issue, as do glossy tobacco cards. Bricking is an issue with storage conditions and surface treatments, which you can change up and isn't a fundamental issue with the stock.

[Nomad]

was surprised to see they are still doing the /499 autos in Topps. didn't that go out in the 90s?

[daeve]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Pretty much every mid-to-high-end Panini release for the past few years….

prove it - which sets/releases would you be referring to?

[Paderborn1907]

Originally Posted by detroitbball

Don’t know how many on here follow baseball. But Topps has made a mess of Chrome Baseball This Year
1. Had top rookies on the checklist as extended short prints, but after two days of the world breaking boxes, none have surfaced. None
2. Auto redemptions of top rookies. Hugely watered down checklist as opposed to previous years
3. Huge QC issues. Horrible centering. Bowed cards. Bricking.
As a result collectors who pre ordered or bought into breaks were walking away with almost no value. (More so than you would normally expect with Chrome.
One poster over in the baseball section said a prominent breaker was actually giving compensation to customers because of it. So question: Has Panini ever pulled a stunt like this? Has Topps just gone downhill? Or is this the future with Fanatics taking control?

Topps and Panini America are soon one company! So expect a lot of the same problems.

[callou2131]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

1. They don't brick, no way. Bricking is when the surface of the cards fuse together
2. What was MSRP supposed to be? People paying obscene amounts above that were foolish especially without seeing the checklist. That checklist was released only a few days before the product release. It was also *subject to change

Every jumbo box opened that I have seen has been bricked. All the cards are stuck together and have to be cracked apart. Hobby has not had this issue.

[k13]

Originally Posted by Nomad

was surprised to see they are still doing the /499 autos in Topps. didn't that go out in the 90s?

No.

There's /999 autos and higher in sets these days.

[JeremyNick]

A Topps screwed up thread quickly pivots to a Panini sucks thread.

Well done BO.

[detroitbball]

There may not be a lot of value continuing this thread. There are videos on YouTube explaining the situation and a whole thread in the Baseball section. But I wanted to make people aware and to “sleep with one eye open” especially when pre ordering based on information from the company.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by detroitbball

There may not be a lot of value continuing this thread. There are videos on YouTube explaining the situation and a whole thread in the Baseball section. But I wanted to make people aware and to “sleep with one eye open” especially when pre ordering based on information from the company.

The lesson learned is never pay FOMO presale prices on pumped products.

If you can get it at factory cost, good for you.

But if you buy the hype, the only one at fault is you.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by Archangel1775

1. They don't brick, no way. Bricking is when the surface of the cards fuse together
2. What was MSRP supposed to be? People paying obscene amounts above that were foolish especially without seeing the checklist. That checklist was released only a few days before the product release. It was also *subject to change

Can you show us where on the checklist or Topps website that it says checklists are subject to change? I can’t find this anywhere.

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by callou2131

Every jumbo box opened that I have seen has been bricked. All the cards are stuck together and have to be cracked apart. Hobby has not had this issue.

Same here.