A 'Million' lessons for Topps Diamond Giveaway

The Who told everyone "they won't be fooled again" and we've been warned not to ignore history for fear of repeating it.
Collectors, in general, aren't always quick to recognize learning experiences - or adjust because of them - making for what's become a gripe-filled hobby world.
Consider Topps Million Card Giveaway in 2010 and this year's Diamond Giveaway programs as a good place to call the class to order and pay attention.
There's probably little dispute both code-based promotions have been widely considered popular, if not successful. Opening the Topps' vaults to expose collectors to six decade's worth of cardboard - and a chance to get some of those cards in your hands - has been a great way to promote company and hobby history, not to mention drive Web traffic.
The complaints about unlocking meaningless modern duds plagues the concept, but no one really could expect Topps to only give away Mantles, Aarons and short prints from the 195os. Technical glitches on the MCG site were also a popular thing to pick on, but shipping costs took the crown for biggest criticism.
Shipping rates were lambasted early and often, continuing into the launch of the Gridiron Giveaway program. It become so prominent a complaint, even Beckett - in the soft-touch way it acknowledges hobby controversy - published a letter in the May issue of Beckett Baseball from a collector who essentially accused Topps of a bait-and-switch.
Ironically, the May issue's content was predominantly a celebration of Topps 60th anniversary.
My own order of MCG cards served to further the Beckett letter writer's point: The package of 31 cards, which cost me nearly $19 to ship, arrived with $3.09 in postage on it.
More irritating was that two of my cards were listed as "backordered."
A Topps representative told me via email this week that all shipping is handled by a third-party and that Topps lost money on it. Although the representative offered to expedite shipping of the missing cards - admittedly, not the point of my email - he didn't touch on my questions about whether Diamond Giveaway will operate the same way as MCG.
The Diamond Giveaway site does not yet have shipping information on it.
The other part of MCG that got folks chirping was the cards themselves. Topps clearly explained during MCG that the card you saw online wasn't necessarily the one you'd receive. Fair enough. That doesn't mean some folks weren't bumming their 50s and 60s "treasures" showed up dinged, creased and well off-center.
Sorting through my stack made me think it would have been a good idea to trade the fair-condition 1954 Ed McGhee rookie card in one of the hundreds of offers that came my way.
OK, so pop quiz time to see if anyone was paying attention.
Will you be more or less likely to participate in the Diamond Giveaway based on your MCG experience?
Knowing the cost and expected card conditions, will you be more or less likely to actually order cards you unlock?
As important, will Topps apply what they learned during MCG to make Diamond Giveaway (and future programs) better for collectors?
Class dismissed.

Campana's Corner is written by Dan Campana, a media consultant, former newspaper reporter and longtime collector living in the Chicago suburbs with a sports-minded 6-year-old and an understanding wife.

I didn't win the '52 Mantle and (likely) neither did you.

Collectors, double-check your voicemail.
Someone won the legendary 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie just by entering Million Card Giveaway codes during the last year.
The question is how many 2010 Topps baseball rippers remembered or even realized each unlocked card put you in the running for the Mantle.
Topps' Michael Mader, in an exchange of emails this week, said a drawing did take place and a winner selected, but that person has yet to respond. It's enough to make you wish you hadn't listened to all your messages.
Then again, consider the odds. Mader said around 1.6 million codes were entered during MCG's run. Hard to fathom when you put it in the context of a 1-in-6 packs pull ratio. It certainly makes the 90 or so I entered seem insignificant.
The deadline to redeem MCG codes and ship out your MCG collections has passed, so the Mantle drawing truly closes out the promotion - although I'm still in the nine-to-13 day holding pattern for my group to show up in the mail.
Like some others, I don't expect too many surprises in terms of condition. Too bad The Mick won't be surprising me either.

Campana's Corner is written by Dan Campana, a media consultant, former newspaper reporter and longtime collector living in the Chicago suburbs with a sports-minded 6-year-old and an understanding wife.

Million Card Giveaway = $18.82 In The Hole, For Now

Plenty of lead time has never been something that got in the way of good procrastination for me.

With less than two weeks before Topps shuts down its Million Card Giveaway program and site, the order was placed today for portions of my amassed collection.

In nine to 13 business days it'll be time to see if the Master Plan will work.

The Master Plan, conceived during last year's Topps Series 2 case break, involves what we could be considered a vintage catch-and-release process: Take the best conditioned cards from 50s, early 60s and the infamous black-bordered 1971 mega-set and send them back out into the hobby world as graded cardboard.

OK, fine, it's basically flipping. No one is disputing that around here. With very little to risk by trying to hoard early issue cards that would never touch these hands under any circumstance, there seemed like an opportunity to make something out of nothing.

Well, not entirely nothing. Sure, it cost money to buy packs that yielded code cards, to grade and it did set me back $18.82 to have Topps ship the 31 cards determined to be the best candidates for grading. By the way, $19 to ship? I've sent more cards to foreign countries at cheaper USPS rates.

Master Plan expectations are mellow. There's not going to be any 9 or 10 grades, but with low or no BGS populations - the only free pop reports out there - for some our guys, even a mid-grade might be a worthy venture.

Or, the whole thing might explain why there's not a lot of vintage adventures in this collector's history.

Campana's Corner is written by Dan Campana, a media consultant, former newspaper reporter and longtime collector living in the Chicago suburbs with a sports-minded 6-year-old and an understanding wife.