Heritage Retail Disaster

db76

Just bought a 29.99 box of retail at Wal Mart. Got home and opened it up... not one pack included 8 cards, had one pack that had FOUR cards in it. A lot of the tops of the packs were semi-opened but not to the point where you could get a card out. There was also not one SP card. The box contained a total of 70 cards (should have 88). I thought maybe I would call up Topps tomorrow, but I was too mad so I just took the box back to Wal Mart and they gave me a refund. I had just put all the cards in a binder because I'm putting the set together and was looking forward to filling in some of the holes. Ruined my night. Anyone else have this happen?

joestalin

man that sucks, did the wrapping have the topps logo on it? Always check for the companies logo on
all retail boxes, as people can reseal them. Blank wraping is tampered with. It is often hard to explain
this to the people at walmart or target, but Im glad you got your money back! This type of thing
happened in 2001 with heritage but hopefully this is the last time we will hear about this!

Kevin

kuhlmann

No but i found 2 packs today at target and they have a advertisement insert in the pack now. they didnt have them in there 2 weeks ago.
i think its a new run now. you wont see many jerseys or autos in these. i could be wrong though.

db76

The wrapping did not have the Topps logo. So I guess it may have been re-wrapped by Wal-Mart. Even at this though you would think that the packs would have the right amount of cards unless someone resealed them. I don't know what happened but I will definitely keep a close eye on the shrink wrap the next time I pick one of these up.
Dan

Bighurt4

I have 3 boxes of Heritage from a retail outlet and they all have Topps printed on the clear wrapping.

Brent

UnAmuzd1

If I had to guess, I'd say someone bought the box, busted the packs, took out the good stuff (18 cards is about right for "good stuff" from these packs - 11 or so SPs, plus 5-7 other random goodies; I opened one last night that had 11 SPs, 1 NAP, 1 TN, 2 chromes, and one retrofractor), re-shrunk it themselves, and returned it for a full refund. Wal-Mart will take anything back, demonstrated by the fact that they took it back from you, too. You ought to swing back by there tomorrow and see if it's on the shelf again. I wouldn't put it past them.

Put differently, I wouldn't blame Topps. I'd blame the jerk who decided to steal cards and then return the box for some other unsuspecting collector to pick up, and I'd blame WM for their slacker return policy.

Topps has been nothing but cool with me. I sent them 77 Heritage cards that I pulled, damaged, out of packs. Within a week I got 10 packs of heritage in the mail from them, plus 3 packs of topps total. Given that none of the cards I sent them were SPs, and I got 10 fresh packs plus 3 for the wife, I was pretty pleased.

Just Morrie
Collector of Cards

joestalin

yeah, someone else re-wrapped them, that sucks, you should tell them that if they want to catch the
guy to check their old records...oh well he probably paid cash...thanks for the warning!

Kevin

Stone193

<< <i>I sent them 77 Heritage cards that I pulled >>


Morrie, I haven't sent anything back in years - I was under the impression there is a max per return on number of cards? So, they accepted all 77 at one time?
Mike
edit: the old instructions stated you had to itemize the cards you were submitting. I have believe or not 150!

db76

I knew that Wal Mart is very lenient when it comes to returns but I was somewhat skeptical that they would take this back. I was so disgusted I threw the cards back in the box without even putting them back inside the packs or anything. I explained to the lady how many times I have bought these boxes and what you should expect. This box had no sps, no chrome, and 70 cards. I thought the pack-feelers were bad, what happened here is outright theft. You guys are right though somebody definietly resealed them.

UnAmuzd1

Mike,

The current instructions are that they will only replace card-for-card up to 25 cards. Beyond that, they send random cards, which is why I got 10 packs for my 77 cards.

I'm not sure it will always be random cards from the *same set*, though, although I get the impression they'll try to do so if possible.

I did itemize the cards in a list for them, along with a 1-2 word description of the flaw. (Corner, roller mark, etc.)

FWIW, the same day I sent off a Jeter NAP that came out of the pack with a corner ding and a huge chip on the top edge. I sent it by itself so that I could get it replaced with the same card. The mint replacement arrived a day after the stack o' packs.

One thing I would recommend is in your letter, say something like, "Since this is the equivalent of [however many] packs, I'm sure you can see why I was disappointed to get cards in this condition." I think that may be why I got sent packs rather than truly random cards.

They have instructions on topps.com, and you can find them in their FAQ.

Morrie

[edited to add link]