Leaf Wrestling MISSING Any Autograph Authenticity!

THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE NEW LEAF ORIGINALS WRESTLING "AUTOGRAPH" CARDS!

NOT ONE OF THESE CARDS HAS THE AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT THAT IS ON ALL CERTIFIED CARD COMPANY AUTOGRAPHS MADE AFTER 2000- EVEN ON PAST 2012 LEAF AUTOGRAPHS!!!

 

So far about half of the dealers I ask about this agree that this was a major problem caused by Leaf. These cards don't even have the word: AUTOGRAPH or SIGNATURE printed ANYWHERE ON THESE CARDS, HOW CAN THIS BE??? I think most of the sellers who disagree are simply trying to sell the cards they have left, so of course they refuse to bad mouth what they are selling. My personal morals & integrity are too great to understand this!

 

We as collectors need to act now & contact brian@leaftradingcards.com -the owner of Leaf. You can also go to their web site & click links for Leaf Originals Wrestling to see more details on the specific product I'm talking about here www.leaftradingcards.com .

 

Brian Gray (Leaf's obnoxious owner) needs to be made aware that he screwed-up BIG TIME because he made Certified Autographs that are useless to true Certified Autograph collectors. To me, as a long time collector of ONLY Certified Autograpghs made by trusted card companies- these Leaf Wrestling autographs are nearly WORTHLESS! They are only worth what a Forensic Document Examiner authenticated autograph is worth. But who is going to spend $25+ to get a $10 autograph authenticated? NO ONE! Luckily I am a Forensic Document Examiner myself, so I have been buying some of these cards (only for $5 average each) to donate to hospitalized children as I do every year since 1989. But to me as a CAI collector- I DO NOT HAVE ANY USE FOR THESE & NEITHER SHOULD YOU!

 

Let me explain why: 

 

1) If Leaf goes out of business, or bankrupt (they've only been "Leaf" since 2010) do you think that anyone will think these are Certified Autograph Inserts (CAI's) in a year or more when the cards say NOTHING about the autograph on the card? I DON'T THINK SO!

 

2) If these cards go from the hands of someone who pulled them from a Leaf box that's one thing. But what if they wind up in the hands of a hobby newbie or hobby rookie? They won't have ANY idea where these "autographs" came from and if they are real! THIS IS A MAIN REASON WHY AUTHENTICITY STATEMENTS (OR STAMPS) ARE PUT ON THESE CARDS BY TRUSTWORTHY COMPANIES LIKE TOPPS!

 

3) There is a reason Leaf did not put the Autograph Authenticity Statement on these cards. We may never know why, but I have my opinion which I have to keep to myself for now. Then there's that odd statement that is on the very low backs of these cards IN SMALL PRINT which is for the licensing of the cards alone. It's like maybe (just a thought) Leaf didn't feel like paying the WWE for licensing rights to the wrestlers names given to them by the WWF/WWE (and is owned by them) so they thought that this statement putting the blame on the wrestlers would work??? That is very suspicious as to what Leaf would do to make money & how little the care about collectors.

 

I had a run-in with the owner of Leaf a few months back when I was owed a Darryl LaMonica Lombardi Autograph Redemption. Then I get a letter stating that they couldn't get LaMonica so they offered $30.00 worth of replacements. I asked politely for one card instead of a few commons. I also told them I collect 1967 players from SB I. There are DOZENS of these players in the Lombardi Set- so why didn't he send me one of those??? Then I was forwarded to Brian Gray.

After explaining to him about my physical disabilities (MD & MS+++), my charity work and my fighting hobby fraud all for free he sends me three COMMON NFL Draft RC's- exactly what I didn't want!!! If he was a jerk right off the bat that's one thing, but he made me believe that he was listening to me and stated he was going to take care of me & HE DID NOT! This made me decide to NEVER send a redemption to Leaf again!

 

When I blasted Brian Gray the moment I found out about these Leaf Wrestling screwed-up cards I told him & he threatened to sue me??? So I cannot do anything to help- IT'S UP TO YOU NOW! These could have been the HOTTEST Certified Autographs of 2012 IF THEY WERE CERTIFIED!!!

 

If you as a collector do not fight for your rights, then this hobby will continue to get worse until it's gone! I care more about the young collectors than ANYTHING & no one else seems to care about them anymore.

 

SO FIGHT LEAF FOR THEM TO OFFER CERTIFICATION FOR THESE LEAF WRESTLING CARDS! 

They have a program called Leaf Authenticated already in place where they put matching serial numbered holograms on the autograph card & a separate COA card. If they do this to these UNAUTHENTICATED Wrestling cards if we request it, then the cards we get back will be worth drastically more! Most of these autographs can be had for $3.00-$6.00 now. Even Hulk Hogan can be found for $50.00-$60.00 (far less than ANY Certified Hulk Autographs)!

I RETURNED A HULK HOGAN I WON FOR $59 & IT WAS SERIAL #01/50!!! I ALSO WON A HOT BOX (WITH FIVE #'ED AUTOS PER BOX) FOR $83 WHEN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE $179.00. I RETURNED THAT TOO!

Now regular boxes of (5) autographs can easily be had for $50.00 (they were $79.00). This is because of what I did telling the hobby the truth about these cards and all the collectors who found this out themselves, often the HARD way! 

 

2014 UPDATE- As I predicted there was a fairly long period of time where these "autograph" cards could be bought on eBay for $5.00 or less for about 90% of the subjects in this set. Most can still be bought for $5 each or less! The best stars of course cost more, but they always sold for far less than sticker autographs (which true autograph collectors ALWAYs hated and still do) of the exact same wrestling subjects made by Topps or other companies that had Autograph Authenticity Statements right on the cards!

Months after I went on my mission to bring out the truth regarding these cards many other dealers AND collectors had the exact same complaints all over message boards and blogs online. They were slow to catch up, but they caught on. I should note that Brian Gray never did offer any solution to this problem. But his reputation is where it belongs now: near the toilet because he is nothing more than a GREEDY SCUM LIAR! The number of products Leaf released in 2014 has decreased quite a bit compared to other years and less and less people are buying Leaf cards which is smart. When the owner of a card company loses much of his hobby reputation, the products they've ever released suffer as well. Just look at the prices of Leaf Draft Pick autographs compared to Bowman Chrome autographs released the same year of the same players. the difference in price has stretched farther than ever I thought they would. 

 

Good luck & FIGHT ON!

 

James McCay



I have been a Certified Autograph Insert expert since the mid-1990's. I interned with a famous Forensic Document Examiner for over 200-hours in 1999 & bustyed the largest forgery ring EVER on eBay soon after. I LOVE THIS HOBBY WHICH IS WHY I FIGHT SO HARD FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT FIGHT!
I either learn everything there is to know about something I want to get involved in- or I don't do it at all. As a collector, I started in general in 1987 at age 20. I was inspired by former NY Met & HOF'er Gary Carter to donate all the profit I could have made from this hobby to hospitalized children every year from 1989-2011 (so far). So I have a unique situation where nothing I've EVER done in this hobby was for personal gain in any way shape or form. 99%+ of what I ever bought on eBay was to donate in December of each year. I worked very hard to help all collectors & investigated just about every hobby rumor you could mention. I found the truth and exposed it. I caused two BIG card companies to lose their baseball licenses for fraud which banrupted both companies. I've done freelance writing for many hobby publications. I've also had dozens of stories done in hobby publications about my donations and one about the start of my 1997 web site when I fought the Score Board bankruptcy trying to save collector's redemptions. Fleer read my site and were very nice to donate 5,000 autographs to those who could prove they were owed autographs.
I am now 45 and am in severe pain 24/7 from ruptured disks in my low back & neck w/awful nerve damage. I rarely can walk just a short ways and am bed-ridden most of the time. Because I have MD (Muscular Dystrophy) & MS (Multiple Sclerosis) symptoms I cannot have any type of surgery, the anesthesia would kill me. As long as I can type I'm here for anyone who has any questions.  cardcop04@gmail.com

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours: Blocked eBay Bidders & the FLIP side!

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours: Blocked eBay Bidders

I totally agree with you. Since I've been on eBay in 1997 (as a buyer & seller), I've always paid in 48-hours NO MATTER WHAT even though I have a very rare type of Muscular Dystrophy where I can barely move most days & even snuck out of the hospital more than once to get my eBay stuff in order. SO HEALTHY PEOPLE HAVE NO EXCUSE AT ALL!

But on the flip-side there are just as many cheap sellers who penny pinch every way they can think of regardless of eBay's Excessive S&H rules. I disagree with eBay's policies like charging that RIDICULOUS S&H fee to sellers, but that's no excuse to overcharge buyers!!! We are supposed to be peers here: BOTH buyers & sellers. Plus it makes BAD business sense to anger a buyer. I can't tell you how many sellers charge $3.00 to start, then .50 cents or more for each additional item. Then they send the (5) single card items I won with either no penny sleeves, or with them but no top-loaders at all & taped all over the place needlessly making it easy to damage cards cutting them out of this cocoon! If you charge me $2.00-$2.50 for unlimited shipping (like I ALWAYS did) you can package my cards anyway you wish, so long as they arrive in the same shape they were when I bought them & don't get damaged by you OVER taping them up. I always shipped in top-loaders for single cards with 1/2 inch crystal clear tape along the entire top making it almost air-tight & the tape never obscured the card anywhere. I never taped cards together either, or taped "dummy" cards around the top-loaders & I NEVER ONCE had a buyer receive a damaged card from me out of thousands of packages.
I often lost money on shipping but SO WHAT! If you are losing that much money selling cards that you cannot spend $1.00 out of your profit to make a buyer extra happy: IT'S TIME TO STOP SELLING- LIKE I DID! When/if the hobby improves, I'll sell again.

Those who charge more than $3.00 for a package weighing less than 4-ounces are OVERCHARGING no matter how many auctions the buyer won! Regardless whether eBay does anything, I still report every buyer who really overcharges for shipping & so should everyone.

The Contradiction that has Become eBay.

In the past I did stories about eBay going BUY IT NOW only. Thanks to overwhelming user response, eBay seems to have scrapped that idea! YEAH!

But the computer take over of so many eBay functions continues & big brother on eBay has never been worse. If you ever want to talk to someone you bought from or someone who bought from you- REMEMBER- Paypal lists the ACTUAL e-mail for these people on your receipt. So DO NOT use eBay Mail unless you absolutely have to. eBay has a computer program read EVERY e-mail you send through eBay Mail!!! If I wanted that, I'd move to Communist Russia!

EBay simply does not make any sense any more. Places have rules- and if you study those rules over and over so that you can become an authority on those rules, you can help enforce those rules- right? That sounds like correct logic, doesn't it? BUT THAT'S NOT HOW THINGS WORK ON EBAY!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't lie and I don't exaggerate. You know why? This hobby and companies involved in our hobby of Sports Cards & Memorabilia do such crazy things that I never have to lie or exaggerate because the truth is even stranger! 

Once again I'm at war with eBay. The ID I've been using for 5-months now: cardsharks ( I changed one letter to avoid eBay identifying me) has built up over (600) feedbacks and according to every regular eBay employee I spoke with by phone I was told many times "YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING REPUTATION AS AN HONORABLE BUYER & WE THANK YOU FOR THAT".
Remember I'm permanently suspended from eBay for well over a year now for basically fighting eBay's stupidest rules. All I did was calmly discuss the rules that contradict each other with "specialists" (eBay's term for supervisors) & since I wouldn't agree with the specialists I was permanently suspended. I SWEAR TO YOU THAT THIS IS THE REASON & I WILL GLADLY TAKE A POLYGRAPH TEST TO PROVE THIS!

The main issue was buyers that complain about the absolute worst sellers they encounter to eBay & by feedback and in retaliation the sellers call eBay with frivolous complaints about these buyers. The way eBay's Policy Violation system is set-up is this: ANYONE GETS A POLICY VIOLATION JUST BY EBAY GETTING A PHONE CALL ABOUT THE BUYER/SELLER REGARDLESS OF THE BASIS OF THE CALL OR COMPLAINT! THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE FACT PEOPLE, I PROVED IT OVER & OVER WITH THEM!

Now, the default Seller block for Policy Violations is (4) four in one month. So if you are a buyer who is fed up with newbie sellers who charge $4.00+ to ship one card and then your card arrives: in a plain white envelope with $1.05 postage, or if you bought (4) cards & were charged $1.00 for each additional card & the postage was $2.00 in a .25 cent bubble envelope, or you complain politely to the buyer & they immediately snap back saying "it's none of your business what I charge", or "my eBay/Paypal fees were $1.00, and it cost me most & time for gas to go to the Post Office". MEANWHILE ALL OF THESE EXCUSES ARE AGAINST EBAY'S RULES WHICH ARE CLEARLY STATED! So you call eBay and the employee you speak with tells you that you did the right thing by calling and you should continue to call & leave negative feedback for such things and you shouldn't worry about retaliation because we will help you: IS A BUNCH OF LIES!!!
Once you get a "specialist" on the phone they'll never disagree with the person who told you all those things- BUT they will say: "you must have misunderstood them", or "they wouldn't have said that". SO THEY BASICALLY PLAY GOOD COP/BAD COP!

Over the last two months I've been buying 2011-12 Panini Preferred ON CARD autographs like crazy because one of the hospitalized children I buy cards for wants these sets. The family of this child have given me as much money as they could come up with and I am donating the rest to make this dream come true.
There once was a time in America where you could contact a company and explain the details of a dying 14-year old child who collects cards and even provide the medical records (which the family will gladly do) in order to get a donation directly from the company. However, thanks to the unstoppable greed in this hobby and the current state of this country's economy- those donations DO NOT happen anymore! I did ask Panini for help THREE times over the last two years & they didn't even bother to respond (I contacted five different departments)! So it's up to individuals like myself to make these dreams come true.

BTW- I've been buying cards for this 14-year old dying girl for over 2-years and her doctor told her parents several times in that span that she has a couple of months to live- so I'd like to think that the cards are helping her stay alive.

So far I have spent over $1,500 out of my pocket (literally on my credit card which I don't know how I'm going to pay back) after the $2,000 the family gave me was gone. The good news is that the Crown Royale & Panini Choice sets are over 90% complete!!! We agreed that we would not include any individual cards that cost over $100 each. But in exchange I've been getting as many versions as possible of each Panini Choice cards (Red, Blue, Silver & Gold), Gold Versions of Crown Royale and have over (20) different Silhouettes JSY/AUTO cards too. I have at least two versions of 75%+ of the Panini Choice players. I have (86) of the (100) cards in the Choice set, 75% of the Silhouettes (which I'm adding as a bonus) and have (36) of the (39) Crown Royale cards. The only player that has eluded me in both sets (Crown & Choice) has been Oscar Robertson. I'm willing to pay $40-$50 for each card, but less than (4) of either card has ever shown up on eBay! So there are 35+ of each card still in packs or in other people's sets.

I've found that patience definitely pays off with these cards. The Devin Ebanks redemptions for ANY of his cards were $18-$25 each before the actual cards started shipping 10-days ago. Then I bought the actual Crown card for $12.00 & $12 for the Silhouettes card. SO WHY WERE THE REDEMPTIONS SO EXPENSIVE FOR SUCH AN IFFY PLAYER? Who knows, he sure isn't the next Kobe Bryant!!!
My next mission is to get the Mitch Richmond cards for less than $15.00 each. He's another one that is OVERPRICED, & Tony Kukoc is another one at $25.00 which is NOT WORTH IT. I'll wait until I can get each for $15.00 or less which I'm 75% sure will happen within the next month or so.

Remember to always ask questions & FIGHT anything that you think is wrong- ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE- I'm proof!

Best wishes as always.

James McCay aka Cardcop

UPPER DECK NO LONGER EXISTS- 2014 UPDATED!!!

3/7/12: Sorry to break the news, but if you are owed a redemption or replacement from Upper Deck YOU LIKELY WILL NEVER GET IT!
I've been fighting hobby fraud, more specifiocally Cpor[porate Hobby Fraud every day since 1997. In 2004, I was diagnosed with a deadfly form of Muscular Dystrophy & already had several ruptured neck & low back disks since late 2001 so I had to stop much of my work then, but it never stopped. Keep in mind I nmever got paid a cent to do any of this, I never got free boxes every month, & never had advertisers. I never even used my skills as a Forensicv Document examiner to make money- only to bust forgers for free.

Upper Deck has had the exact same phone message on for over three months now. No other extensions work, they hang up if you press anything & when the message ends it also hangs up. THIS WAS A DELAY TACTIC BY UPPER DECK TO BUY TIME TO GET ALL THE MONEY & RUN!

All the private phone extensions I knew are all now DEAD & all the e-mails I knew (over ten of them) are also DEAD!

Upper Deck was sued by Major League Baseball & the MLBPA for making baseball cards even after they were court ordered not to. This should prove to collectors of those fake NSA game-used cards in BGS-like cases that YOU NEED A LICENSE TO MAKE CARDS OR USE PLAYER'S LIKENESS IN ANY WAY.

DO NOT SEND REDEMPTION CARDS IN TO UPPER DECK, OR CARDS FOR REPLACEMENTS.

James

2014 Update: I did write an e-mail to Upper Deck's new President a few months after Richard McWilliam died and explained how I got so screwed. They sent me over $150 worth of On Card autographs of players I requested. I really did appreciate that.

But in the end of November 2014 I found out that EVERY college jersey they put on any football card starting with SP Authentic Rookie/Patch Autographs that were some of the most expensive RC/Auto/Patch cards in the hobby from 2011-present ARE ALL FAKE MEMORABILIA CARDS!
I had no idea that this was going on because NO ONE else ever mentioned it anywhere! And I vowed to never buy any Upper Deck cards after this redemption Fiasco which I stuck to, so I never even saw one of these college jersey/patch cards until Nov. 2014 when I saw a 2013 Ultimate Patch card of a retired player which I needed for my collection. It was a seller with "BUY IT NOW" only but also had "MAKE AN OFFER". So I offered a low price that I thought he'd never accept, and he accepted my offer.
The moment I received my great looking patch card, I flipped it over and I read the back which stated (I'm paraphrasing here) "PLAYER WORN FOR UPPER DECK." You all need to realize that Upper Deck SCREWED every person who owns one of these COLLEGE REPLICA JERSEY/PATCH cards because none of these cards have any type of "MEMORABILIA" on them (what Upper Deck actually calls them). Then I find out from two different trusted sources that Upper Deck is in the middle of being sold. This means that Upper Deck will NEVER take responsibility for screwing literally tens of thousands of different collectors!!!
Now, how thousands of dealers and tens of thousands of collectors never caught this in almost FOUR YEARS is beyond my understanding when it took me all of 30-senonds to realize what Upper Deck did that screwed everyone that owns one of these WORTHLESS college replica jersey/patch cards that the players depicted may (or may not- YOU NEED TO SEE PROOF IN THE WAY OF LOA's THESE DAYS THAT CARD COMPANY JERSEYS WERE GAME-WORN BECAUSE THE FBI BUSTED GUYS SELLING FAKE JERSEYS TO CARD COMPANIES IN 2012 AND I HAVE ABSOLUTE PROOF THAT PLAYOFF BOUGHT THESE FAKE JERSEYS TOO) have thrown on for a few seconds then took right off and they magically became "memorabilia" cards according to Upper Deck WHICH COULDN'T BE MORE INACCURATE!

Now I understand that none of you investigated EVERY card company (big, small, new or old) for fraud at one time (or more) or another from 1992-present like I have, and I realize IN ADDITION TO THAT none of you worked as a Senior Manager for a big card company like I did for the sole purpose of: 1) learning every insider secret I could possibly learn in the time I was there. 2) Busted them for fraud as soon as I collected enough evidence to do so.

I DID THESE THINGS AT GREAT PERSONAL EXPENSE TO MYSELF AND GREAT PERSONAL LOSS TOO FOR THE FUTURE OF THIS HOBBY FOR ALL OF YOU: BUYERS AND SELLERS ALIKE! You need to understand this because none of what I did that truly saved this hobby and extended it's shelf life by at least a decade was ever publicized by anyone besides myself because as my former "friend" Mike Payne (former Beckett President: and ironically current Panini employee) stated to me in 2001 "You do the things we could never do and we could never tell the necessary truth like you do because we are afraid of losing advertising dollars." Again, I was paraphrasing because this is all off the top of my head, but the main message was the exact same.

Everyone that owns any Upper Deck "memorabilia" card that states "PLAYER WORN GFOR UPPER DECK" needs to call Upper Deck NOW (before they get sold) and ask to speak to a supervisor because you want to know why they marketed WORTHLESS jersey cards as "MEMORABILIA" which caused you to spend money on worthless junk that you no longer want!

I hate to say it like this, but there are IDIOTS paying $50.00 or MUCH MORE for these truly worthless- Dan Marino, John Elway, Jerome Bettis, Barry Sanders, etc. "memorabilia" patch cards and every star rookie you can name from 2011-present on Autograph/with worthless college Patch cards (because Upper Deck lost all their NFL football licensing in late 2010). So in the near future when everyone realizes that Upper Deck duped the entire hobby into believing these were game-used, or real memorabilia cards there will be PLENTY of extremely angry people and if Upper Deck is sold to new owners by this time: THERE WILL BE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO- unless the new owners out of the kindness of their hearts offer some kind of replacement policy (considering the sheer number of cards and money involved I doubt very strongly that the new owners could even afford to offer you ANYTHING!!!).

MARK MY WORDS HERE AND DON'T FORGET THAT I WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY PERSON IN THIS WHOLE HOBBY TO NOTICE THIS MAJOR FRAUD EVENT BY UPPER DECK AND PUBLICIZED IT AS SOON AS I KNEW!
YET I'M EXTREMTLY SICK EVERY DAY SINCE 2010 (I'm legally homebound/bed-ridden and have been on SSD since 2004) AND AM TERMINALLY ILL AT AGE 47!!! SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BRAINS OF EVERYONE ELSE IN THIS HOBBY? ESPECIALLY DEALERS WHO BOUGHT CASES OF THIS JUNK??? You can't tell me no one noticed what Upper Deck did, but they just wanted to make money so they stayed silent. Notice how almost NO ONE on eBay selling these cards state that they are "game-used"- especially if they use the words Game-Used for "REAL" game-used cards that state "game-used" on the card backs!!! Those sellers almost all know the facts about these worthless cards, so all they care about is taking collector's money regardless of repercussions. This is how bad the full time sellers left in this hobby are. 

Sports Cards & Memorabilia on eBay: WORSE THAN EVER!!!

I'm now back on eBay for my FIFTH different time in the last 8-months when I was permanently suspended for FIGHTING FRAUD!!! When eBay suspends youx, just sign up again with the same info & you have a new working account to BUY & SELL! This is how bad eBay has gotten. So why is this so bad? The literally hundreds of awful crooks I had permanently banned from eBay since 1998 can just go right back on eBay! Then never used to be able to do this. But now that eBay fired most humans & relys almost 100% on the computer program the hired- IT JUST PROVES A COMPUTER CANNOT DO A HUMAN'S WORK! Hiumans don't understand why they dov what thjey do sometimes which is called emotions & computer programs have no emotions which is why eBay is so broken.

For every negative feedback you leave: IT GOES AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT! For every complaint you make against someone else: IT GOES AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT! For every non-5-Star feedback you get as a seller (regardless if it's warranted or not): IT GOES AGAINST YOR ACCOUNT & YOU PAY HIGHER FEES!  You cannot win on eBay no matter what you do anymore.

As I stated before I'm permanently physically disabled with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy & I cannot walk more than a few steps anymore at age 45. So I don't have the luxury like almost all of you do to go to shows or card shops anymore since 2005. So eBay is my only real choice to buy cards cheap.

I got four bad hobby boxes of 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter from Dave & Adam's Card World or DACW (the biggest buyers of illegally obtained cards in the USA for MANY years). They were all missing the third hit per box. And all I got out of four boxes was (8) common sports jersey/bat cards. I did not pull any beard cards, flower cards, or anything other than inserts that were more than one per box. There are several 1:144 & one per case (12-boxes) insert cards making the overall odds one per box. I GOT NONE OF THOSE IN FOUR BOXES!
The price difference between hobby & retail is HUGE with most Topps products these days. Retail boxes yield one hit if you are lucky, but hobby boxes are supposed to have three. Hobby boxes are supposed to have an autograph 1:63 packs, and retail are 1:200 packs. With all the common autographs & the doubnle printing of those common autographs they should have been one per box in hobby boxes & one in every other retail box. Anyway, hobby boxes average $75.00 a box, and retail were down to $30 a box, but are back up to around $40 a box now. I strongly suspect that DACW knowingly bought bad boxes from Topps yet sold them at no discount which they often do. If you ever see any recent boxes on DACardWorld.com for less than half of what they are selling for everywhere else- don't expect to pull the cards you are supposed to per box! Plus you are NEVER guaranteed that the card company will help you either. But after many e-mails, Topps did make good & they sent me an unripped rip card, a few Flora flower cards, a Bazooka back card & a common autograph. The same week I bought one retail box & pulled a Shawn Michaels ($175 in  Beckett) autograph redemption card!!! I'm sticking to retail boxes to complete my mini master set that I decided to make after this fiasco.

I need to further explain "bad boxes". Since I worked as a Senior Manager for a big card company, I know things that none of you will ever hear elsewhere & I never lie or exagerate which is why
 I have never been sued after fighting fraud & never holding my tongue in this hobby for over 15-years now online alone & 20-years total. Bad boxes occur when the card company has orders for more boxes than they have inserts for. So they keep making boxes after certain inserts run out. They always purposely make an overage of up to 20% of the entire print run to have extra inserts for replacements. But these are usually pulled FIRST & are NEVER used to put in boxes. When card companies sell the bad boxes they usually discount them greatly & let the buyer know they are bad boxes, but that's only if the printer tells them they did this which is not always the case. 

<<<<<NEARLY ALL CARD COMPANIES DO NOT MAKE THEIR OWN CARDS!>>>>>
They use big printing companies that have no connection to the card company at all! If this is news to you, then you've been relying on Beckett for your hobby info for TOO LONG! The Dallas/Ft.Worth, TX area is a hot spot for hobby elitism. Beckett is there, so is Panini (formerly Playoff), Heritage Auctions, and the printing company that prints & packages nearly all the cards in the hobby: Great Western Inc.. I took a late night peek at their entire card production area (all the way in the back next to the freight train tracks) in 2002 and thought it was quite interesting that nothing but Jamaicans were printing our cards. Now please don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Jamaican people. It's just when was the last time you saw a Jamaican card collector? I'm of the opinion that at least one person in the room making our cards should know almost all there is to know about our hobby. Even the boss was Jamaican. I stayed there behind their industrial sized shredder where no one could see me for well over an hour. A couple of employees even took pot smoking breaks on the loading dock- who's door was wide open! Maybe this is why there are so many screw-ups in card boxes!!!
I even pulled many cards out from under the shredder. I pulled a 2001 Fleer Flair Drew Henson partially completed RC - this card never existed according to Beckett!

 I also pulled a Press Pass football Draft insert of Julius Peppers that was different from the ones put in packs- I still have that card. You would think they would do a better job destroying these cards- BUT THEY DON'T! As far as I know Great Western still prints almost all the cards in  the hobby.

Be extremely careful on eBay, many sellers have hidden HIGH shipping fees, sometimes they don't send your cards if they don't sell for enough (because all you can do is get an immediate refund from them & then you won't leave negative feedback in their minds), and stay away from sellers with multiple bad feedbacks like tntnorthnj. Just lpook at his feedbackl, he averages (50) negative/neutrals EVERY MONTH! 

Probably for the last time (because of my illnesses) I donated over 40,000 cards to Toys For Tots in December. I made 400-count boxes for each child sorted by sport or subject with all stars & most indserts included. Plus every box had at least two Certified Autographed Inserts & every other box had a autographed Diamond King card by the artist: Dick Perez. Every year I'd write to a couple of famous people and always got 50+ by mail autographs to add. This was the 22nd year in a row I donated at least 30,000 cards a year. I wanted it to go to The Leukemia Society which was the charity that I started donating to after being inspired by my friend Gary Carter in 1989, but they told me "hospitals aren't accepting loose cards anymore because of the terrorism climate". I'm sorry, but that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! For starters I was speaking to the person who knew me for 22-years & I won a National Award from them in 1991! What was I going to do put a bomb in a 4X6 inch box!

Always fighting for collectors for free for you, & sometimes at my expense!

James McCay