Will Upper Deck Send me a new card??

orion9578

I finally pulled a decent card today and one of the corners is sorta dinged. Anyone know if UD will exchange it or something? My luck, I get a good card playin the card lottery and its got a sloppy corner .

Thanks for all replies

mudflap02

Great card - sorry I can't help you with your question. I do know that UD customer svc. is absolutely horrid, so you're taking a big chance.


That card looks like a class on "How to sign a card / How not to sign a card" for ballplayers.

mudflap02

And every time I see the Unit's sig, it looks like he's writing "Timmy."

Timmah

Boopotts

When I first looked at the card I didin't even look at who was on it, and assumed the top sig was Trevor Hoffman.

BigRedMachine

Great card!!!! I should be so lucky from time to time.

I did buy a box of 2004 UD Sweet Spot Football last fall and one of the autos was a Ben Watson rookie. It was a gold version numbered to 100 (okay, no clemens auto, but hey). Anyway, those helmet cards are thick and the top layer of mine was peeled back about an inch into the card.

I decided it was worth sending back to see if I got a replacement. After about 8 weeks of hearing or seeing nothing I started sending emails. I thought I was out of luck as no one could even see I had sent a card in.

Then, out of the blue, a replacement came. Also sent an apology letter an two additional packs of 04 sweet spot. I was happy to get something back. One of the return emails sent to me I'll paste below, as I actually sent the card to a different address then they wanted. It read:

We do have a replacement policy for factory damaged cards. Please return damaged product to: The Upper Deck Company, Attention-Quality Assurance Dept., 5909 Sea Otter Place, Carlsbad, CA, 92008. Please enclose a letter that includes your name, address, an explanation of the issue, and a list of the cards enclosed. If card-for-card replacement is desired, we will replace up to 40 cards per package request. If you are mailing cards of value, you may want to consider mailing via certified, registered, or insured; some means to protect successful delivery to Upper Deck. The Upper Deck Company is not responsible for lost, damaged or misdirected mail. Our replacement policy is to replace any damaged product for 8 months after its release date or while supplies last. Our goal is to offer a 4-6 week turn around upon receipt of damaged product.

Please include original e-mail when writing us back.



Lucy Alvarez

Customer Service Representative

The Upper Deck Company

985 Trade Drive

North Las Vegas, NV 89030

Lucy_Alvarez@upperdecknv.com


Anyway, good luck and great pull indeed. Better than Ben Watson anyway. (Who wants a Patriot when you're a Colts fan?)

orion9578

Thanks for the replies guys. It's my luck that this is the only card in the pack that seems to be damaged. I bought 4 tins and out of the 4 I got 2 dual autos and BOTH of them had a bad corner on them. The 2 other regular auto's are perfect indeed. Shrug, thanks again.

pandrews

<< <i>And every time I see the Unit's sig, it looks like he's writing "Timmy."

Timmah >>

brianwintersfan

Call customer service before you send anything in.

orion9578

<< <i>Call customer service before you send anything in. >>



Tried, their number is broke or something lol . Unless theres a different # then 800-873-7332. I get some message that says "the number you are calling is not answering you will now be disconnected".

NBAFan

It took me like 16 weeks to get a replacement. So if you plan on keeping the card for yourself, it might be worth sending in. If you are going to sell it, the selling price will probably drop by the time you get it back, but you never know.

I'm not sure on Autos. If they signed on the card, then chances are they don't have any replacements, and they won't be able to tell you that over the phone either. I had a dinged James Ultimate Collection Auto RC.

kingraider75

I don't know about auto's, UD is pretty good about replacing damaged cards with something. Usually it's packs though, not the cards you send in.

Stone193

Ryan
You are definitely living under the right moon! A Killebrew auto last week and now this! Great card!
I wouldn't sent that to customer service without a confirmation that they will replace it with the same card.
Otherwise the replaced could be signed by Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry!!!

Congratulations and good luck
BTW, since it's an auto card, I don't get as bothered by dings
mike

orion9578

Again, thanks for the advice/replies fellas. I can't get ahold of upper deck so I guess we'll just see. I'm thinking I'm going to sale the card but how much of a price drop do you think I'll see since it has the dinged corner? There a clemens fixing to end right now #'ed /15 from ultimate 05 as well. So far its up to 470 dollars. I got an offer from the local card shop guy for 300 but I really want to wait till I talk to upper deck and see if I can get a replacement. But like NBAfan said it will take a long time to get back and the price will drop quite a bit I'm sure. This would be the first one up...soooo I dunno what I want to do. And thanks Mike, I have had quite good luck the last few weeks which is odd. Here are the other 3 auto's I got.

ctsoxfan

Wow - that Yaz / Rice card is very nice!

I have had UD replace auto'ed serial numbered cards before, and it takes a looooong time (I would presume because of the numbering as much as having autos for replacement). Yours is tougher, because the autos are on the card itself, and there are two of them. They'll replace it, but probably with something else.

dtkk49a

I find it hard to believe , but rumor has it that some players will actually "ding" card after they sign it. Thier reasoning is a true fan will keep the card no matter the condition, while someone out to make a buck will be dissapointed.

orion9578

<< <i>I find it hard to believe , but rumor has it that some players will actually "ding" card after they sign it. Thier reasoning is a true fan will keep the card no matter the condition, while someone out to make a buck will be dissapointed. >>



I find that kind of hard to believe too, lol. Doesn't UD look at the cards when they get them back? If players really did this I'm sure UD would have to put a stop to it because of the amount of returns they would receive. Plus they are getting paid to sign the cards, not like they are doing it for free. Anyone else heard of this? Just curious .

Ahmanfan

just sell it... still a great card and will go HUGE... dont bother with the replacement nightmare...

orion9578

<< <i>just sell it... still a great card and will go HUGE... dont bother with the replacement nightmare... >>



I really want to considering I'm not a huge fan of either player(though clemens is fun to watch) and I'm definantly not a fan of either of their teams. I just don't want to replace the "replacement nightmare" with the neg I might receive or the paypal dispute if the buyer isnt happy. I'm .

dtkk49a

I've sent in numbered cards for replacement only to receive a replacement card minus the numbering. In effect, they sent me a card with
no collector's value.

orion9578

Well I received an email today from customer service, I'll copy/paste the important/interesting part.

"as far as your bad luck with bent corners on cards, unfortunately
athletes don't share the same enthusiasm as most collectors as far as
keeping cards in good shape goes. Unfortunately there is just not much
we can do about this."

Maybe dtkk49a was right. I guess the card will either just go on ebay as is or I'll try to get rid of it locally. I would complain more to UD but I know that once they give you an answer about something it usually doesn't change no matter who you talk to. Oh well

Boopotts

That is just total BS. UD should tell these guys that the cards need to stay mint, and if they don't want to abide by that then cut 'em off. With the money you're paying for packs now you should be able to expect cards that haven't been damaged by some ingracious millionare.

Ahmanfan

just curious- whats your asking price for the card as is?
John

orion9578

<< <i>That is just total BS. UD should tell these guys that the cards need to stay mint, and if they don't want to abide by that then cut 'em off. With the money you're paying for packs now you should be able to expect cards that haven't been damaged by some ingracious millionare. >>



I totally agree. Not much I can do about it though, since they are basically refusing to do anything about it. As for saling the card I've already got a local offer of 300, which is probably as much as it would go for on ebay right? Maybe I'll just keep it and chalk it up to good/bad luck at the same time, lol.

envoy98

Here's my 2 cents on the matter.

A) AWESOME card!

I don't know that I would count on a replacement as the card is signed in person by each player on the card so they probably wont have another one laying around that they can put stickers on. They also tend to hand number them the next time around, if they they have a replacement.

C) it is true that some players ding cards. IIRC it was Jack McDowell that used to do this, he would actually bend the corner on every card he signed in person. There was actually an article in one of the mags about it at one point. I would suspect this is not the case here. After shipping from the printer to UD, from UD to Roger, Roger back to UD, then UD to RJ, then RJ back to UD then to pack out. It's surprising more cards aren't badly damaged. I would honestly just try and sell the card as is. You may not get "top dollar" for it, but if it is the first one out there, it'll get bids. It's a great card either way.

BTW, I bought a tin of that crap and pulled a Bobby Doerr auto. hmph.
Oh, and in case you didn't know, there is a dual auto of Clemens/Johnson from Ultimate Collection #/25 that books $400 and usually sells close to that. I would suspect this one will get in the $400 range as well.

Nice pulls.

CopperJJ

The last time I dealt with Upper Deck replacing cards was in 2000. I had a bunch of 2000 SP Authentic numbered cards (Baseball and Football) that were chipped front, back, all sides, just terrible. They sent the cards back, but the cards were hand numbered the same as the machine numbered cards I had sent in. It took about 4-6 weeks back then. The only other company I've dealt with sending cards back to is Donruss. Always replace cards in about three weeks (sent some back in 2003).

I would definately contact someone at UD first before just mailing the card in.

orion9578

I finally got ahold of them on the phone but got much of the same. I think I'm "stuck" with the card, which isnt a huge deal since I think I'll keep it and the corner isnt THAT bad so it doesn't bug me much. We'll see though

NBAFan

If you do list it on ebay, make sure you at least say the card is NM or better, so the buyer can't complain. I mean if the ding is small it could easily get a NM-MT and if the grader is tired it could come back MT.