Card: 1984 John Elway, Card #63

Team/Position: Denver Broncos / Quarterback

Cost: $8 for this terribly off-centered beauty.

1984 is one of the few years in the modern era that can compete with the big-boys of the 1950′s.  Marino and Elway alone keep the year amongst the greatest of all time.

With that said, I have no use for John Elway or any other Quarterback that refuses to abide by the rules of the NFL Draft –  I’m looking at you, Mr. Eli Manning.

Elway played his college ball at Stanford where despite never leading the Cardinal to a bowl game, Elway posted ridiculous numbers and was part of everyone’s favourite sports highlight: “The Band IS OUT ON THE FIELD!!”

What many tend to forget about John Elway was his brief stint in the New York-Penn League prior to his senior season.  Elway obviously had all of the tools that scouts dream of, but whether or not he could’ve achieved greatness we’ll never know.

The Yankees selected Elway in the second round of the 1981 MLB Draft after the Royals had spent a selection on Elway in ’79.

From an ‘83 issue of Time Magazine:

How well Elway could play was a question, but how well he would be paid was not. The baseball “rights” to Elway belonged to the New York Yankees, who belong to George Steinbrenner, a free spender capable of buying a pennant and everything else on the shelf. And he seems loath to pay less than $1 million for anything. In six weeks of minor league baseball last summer, Class A ball in Oneonta, N.Y., Outfielder Elway batted .318. However, since Class A pitchers seldom throw a curve on purpose, there was naturally some uncertainty about whether Elway could ever be a major league baseball player, much less a star. Regarding his football skills, there is less doubt.

Elway eventually found himself a member of the Denver Broncos and would go on to lead DRIVES and DIVES.

Elway was the king of the comeback, and will be remembered more than any statistic, as such.  He holds the record for most game-winning or game-tying drives in the fourth-quarter with 47.

If you’re an Elway fan, you certainly have his Colorado Crush of the Arena Football League Jersey.  As the owner of the Crush, Elway’s pimpin’ out his jersey for the low-low-low price of 46.99.   Medium, Large and 2XL are sold out, so you’re out of luck unless you’re a size XL.

You can get pretty decent deals on Elway’s RC if you’re not picky — To me, it seems as though your best bet is an ungraded card in the PSA 7 range.

Card: 1956 Topps Football #60

Team/Position: Baltimore Colts / Halfback

Cost: $9.00

Lenny Moore was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the first round (ninth overall) of the 1956 draft out of Penn State.  Lenny ended up being one of the few players to get his rookie card in his draft year.  The ’56 set holds some great Hall Of Famers on Topps cardboard for the very first time.  Lenny Moore, Joe Schmidt, Bill George, Stan Jones and Roosevelt Brown all have their Rookie Cards in the ’56 set.

I absolutely love the looks of these cards and I’m contemplating throwing together a low-grade set.  I got Lenny Moore and Joe Perry from the 1955 Bowman set, all for 9 bucks.  I’m going to considering Perry a Bonus! Bonus! card and just say that Lenny cost 9 bucks.  You can find Lenny Moore cards for under 5 bucks though, if you look hard enough.

Moore was a huge part of Baltimore’s offense, but his cards cost about 1/50th of the price as Unitas’.  Moore was another Flanker / Halfback combo-player that contributed whenever he touched the ball.

Over the course of Moore’s career, he notched seven Pro Bowls and seven All Pro selections.  Moore was named to the all decade team of the 1950′s and took home the UPI’s Rookie of the Year Award in 1956.

Lenny Moore was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975 after retiring from the game before the 1968 season.  Moore finished up his career with over 12K combined yards, and a then record, 18 consecutive games played with a touchdown.

I didn’t have a Topps profile, as I was very new to collecting, so I created one and entered codes a couple at a time as I debated just selling or holding the redemption cards.  Since you obviously cannot return opened boxes of baseball cards, my profile came to look like this:

Okay..

For the last month, I’ve been receiving emails from Topps saying,

Dear Consumer.

This email is to inform you that the Topps Company is currently beyond the 15 week processing time allocated for the following redemption card:

PIN #:          Product:                        Card/Player Name
XXXXXXXX    Topps Finest                    Travis Snider AU Rookie Letter Patch

Our staff is working diligently to process and ship your redemption card as soon as possible.  Please continue to check your Online Redemption account for updates regarding the status of your card.

If you no longer wish to wait for the redemption card, please contact our Consumer Relations team in order to place a substitution request for a card of equal Beckett value.

Obviously, the consumer has to believe that Topps had a contract with Snider and just wasn’t able to get the cards signed in time, right?

Well after complaining about the misleading (and illegal?) sales tactics to support@etopps.com, I finally got an answer about when the cards would (maybe) arrive at my doorstep:

Response (Colin)

11/09/2009 11:52 AM

Thank you for your inquiry concerning our current redemption program.

I wanted to apologize for the delay and allay your concerns in reference to Topps having received your redemption claim. Below you will see the entry into our system for your card:

09-BB-FIN-152-RF Backordered 2009 Topps Finest Baseball Travis Snider AU Rookie Letter Patch Refractor 152

This specific card is scheduled to be printed and constructed in November along with the Finest Rookie set. Please allow four to six weeks for us to obtain the autograph and ship the card. If, at the end of that period, you have not received, feel free to contact us again involving the status of your redemption.

Now, I’m fucking furious.

Topps hadn’t even PRINTED the Cards at the time the release, let alone SENT them to Travis Snider.

If this isn’t a severe misrepresentation of a product, I don’t know what is, but I’ll be filing the papers.