Topps Super Bowl Legends Giveaway summary

First, on a brief serious note:
I'd like to give a quick shout out to a post today by Jeff of My Sports Obsession.  His wife was diagnosed with MS and they'll be doing a fund-raising walk next month.  I got to meet Jeff's family a couple weeks ago, and they were great people, plus they're Michigan fans so they're actually OUTSTANDING people.  Jeff's asking for donations and I hope some of you will help out a fellow collector and blogger with something this important, so if you can, please head over to the site for donations!

Give it away, give it away, give it away, now:

After weeks of misinformation and stalling, Topps (wait, Topps was doing a shitty job of customer service and meeting deadlines?!) FINALLY got the Super Bowl Legends Giveaway up and running today.  I had 60 codes, and after realizing they weren't exactly selling like hotcakes, I decided to have some fun and redeem them.


First, here's a look at the prize process:

There are four types of items you unlock:  diecut cards, rings, coins and jerseys.  The cards can be shipped (eventually, this IS Topps we're talking about) but everything else is virtual.  To get to each of those prizes up top, you need to unlock a certain number of "unique" items of each type (not including cards).  As you can see, I had no problem getting to at least 10 of each type, so I got three free codes, three 10% off discounts for Schlocks.com and three free entries for an autographed Namath (the drawing will be at the end of January).  To get an automatic Namath auto you need all 45 of any one of those items.  Items can't be traded for different items (e.g. you can't trade rings for jerseys or even cards for anything but cards) and I'm sure some of these are rarer than others.


Here's a very brief summary of what I had immediately after I entered my codes:

• 5 cards: James Harrison (43), Howie Long (18), Jerry Rice (23), Jordy Nelson (45), Reggie Wayne (41)
• 23 rings: 17 unique, dupes of Colts, Packers, Ravens, Earl Campbell X2, Len Dawson
• 16 coins: 13 unique, dupes of Packers (31), Colts (5), Redskins (17)
• 19 jerseys: 14 unique, dupes of Cowboys (27), Raiders (15), 49ers (24), Packers (31), Chiefs (4)

So many doubles you'd think this was a physical box of Topps!  You can see how I'm doing working on the prizes in the screen shot above, and also here:

Right now, without more code cards (which I'm working on buying, but only at bargain basement prices--I'm not THAT obsessed) the Namath may be a pipe dream, but I'm still trading and seeing what I can do.  I'm also working on trades for the cards themselves, but here's what I started with:

I do have to say the cards look like they may be very nice (and maybe serial numbered?).  Frankly I'll be happy if I can end up with the Tom Bradys in the set and get those shipped, maybe along with the Rice if I can hold onto it.

My impression thus far is that this is another D+ Topps online giveaway effort--the codes proved to be almost worthless and they've barely improved the trading system.  Also, just because they know I love my "Topps is dumb" tag, here's what happens if you request to get a card shipped:

Well why AREN'T the cards "aviable," Topps?  Is "activiation" a new process you just invented or did you pull your entire customer service team from a pool of idiots who comment on YouTube videos and message boards?

Topps in one beautifully concise meme

It's not so much that I don't like having to wait until mid-October (right, we all know they'll meet THAT deadline) for my cards to ship--I just can't believe that after literally weeks of the site being overdue they didn't have someone with at least a third grade education proofread a site intended for the public.

Well, at least this didn't feel like the kick in the nuts that the baseball giveaway always offers.  Should any interesting developments with my progress on this ensue, I'll make sure to post something about it.  Until then, enjoy your usual overdue, overpriced, cookie-cutter shit from Topps! 


Edit, 9 pm:  Thanks to some wheeling and dealing, and especially to the generosity of Ted from Crinkly Wrappers, I now have the following:

• 24 unique rings
• 17 unique coins
• 19 unique jerseys

I managed to trade away all my doubles (including all three of my Earl Campbell rings accidentally, but no big deal) to end up with the numbers above.  On the third and final code Ted donated to me, I also hit this, my best so far:  

That's pretty cool, to be sure, so a big thanks again to Ted.  I now have six cards (all different) including the Montana to Rice combo.  Unless I can turn it and another card into both Bradys, this one's staying with me.