Topps makes good on Aflac numbering miscue

12.05
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Posted on December 5, 2011 – 9:32 am | Author: chrisolds
Baseball | , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (5)

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

Topps announced Monday a free authentication and grading program for some new baseball autographed cards that were released recently without a key way to assure that they are real and not unsigned cards that have had fake autographs added to them.

The cards are the seven Aflac autographs found in 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects which were released without serial-numbering to differentiate them from the unsigned cards that were given to the pubic during the prep all-star event.

The players are Archie Bradley, Dylan Bundy, Larry Greene, Travis Harrison, Francisco Lindor, Robert Stephenson and Blake Swihart.

To alleviate this problem, Topps has joined with PSA to get the autographs authenticated and the cards graded — for free.

The cards will be marked on the slab that they were part of the program and only the cards found in packs will be accepted. The offer is good until July 1, 2012.

Cards should be mailed to:

AFLAC Certification Program c/o Topps
1 Whitehall Street
New York, N.Y. 10004

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

5 Comments

@Jaypers413

I’d be curious to find out just how long this whole process takes, from the time you send it back to Topps, to the time they submit them to PSA

Posted December 5, 2011 at 10:12 am | Permalink
@Jaypers413

….to the time it comes back from PSA, back into the owner’s hands.

Posted December 5, 2011 at 10:13 am | Permalink
Patrick Mortensen

Great Idea on topps part. glad to see their making things right and in a big way, free grading/slabbing. The only thing that concerns me is the cards are going to get low grades. The two I pulled, both lindor, were both damaged on all four corners. I know its only 2 out of 1000+.

Posted December 5, 2011 at 1:39 pm | Permalink
Sanders

Thouh not a horrible idea, I still don’t understand how Topps/PSA will be able to determine the cards pulled from packs and those signed in person.

Posted December 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm | Permalink
Adam Shoemaker

I’m just glad I don’t care for or buy Bowman products. Either way, Topps just keeps getting more and more sloppy with all of their products. It’s no wonder that I haven’t bought ANY MLB cards since 2009. I really hope some company (Panini/UD/Press Pass/ ANYONE else, really) gets an MLB license to make Topps care about their releases again. Topps NEEDS competition b/c they are getting sooooo slack with all of their products and services. QC has been terrible and CS is pretty much the same now. I WANT to be happy to buy MLB cards again, but it won’t happen until there is some competition to keep Topps honest and on top of the game!

Posted December 5, 2011 at 11:13 pm | Permalink

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