A Crazy Topps Redemption Swap Story

A little positivity today

Author

Mike Junk Wax Hero
January 27, 2025

Happy Monday, collectors!

Again, it’s strange for me to be telling a good Topps story after I shared a ton of conspiracy theories about them and criticism of them on Sunday, but here we are.

My friend Kevin pulled the following redemption over a year ago:

He has since watched as more recent autographs from both players have been pulled and sold, so he emailed Topps to ask them about the status. They told him it wasn’t available.

Kevin texted me something to the effect of, “I’m shooting my shot,” and sent me a photo of his email attempt to get something big from Topps:

That’s a good email! I was still skeptical, though, because it’s Topps.

But they surprised me:

Uhhh that’s pretty good!

Kevin obviously accepted, and they shipped them immediately:

That’s a pretty big score, if you ask me. Most of the redemption “replacements” I’ve seen have been total losses.

Have you seen a redemption replacement this good?

PRESENTED BY THE PENNYSLEEVER

Here are the products that I use from The Pennysleever:

More Details On The Skenes Debut Patch Auto

I already had this issue written and scheduled when I popped open Twitter late Sunday evening and discovered that Cllct had written a story with a damning detail about the Paul Skenes debut patch auto:

Remember, on my Sunday Clearing the Bases video, we wondered about this detail and if Topps / Fanatics knew and didn’t tell collectors, keeping box prices artificially inflated in the interim. Now we know that they did.

And there’s this:

Bad look.

2 AMA Questions

I forgot to answer two questions on my AMA, so here they are, followed by my answers:

To Joseph: no, I have never had a major find of any kind, unfortunately. It’s been a huge dream of mine since I was a kid. I’m almost 46 now and still think about it often.

To Ron:

I’ve heard millions, and that makes sense. 120,000 go to the National, and that’s a small fraction of the hobby world.

If 1% of Americans collect, that’s almost 4 million people. I would guess that as a high end of a range. Maybe 2-4 million?

What do you think?

Best TV Shows

I also promised to list my favorite tv shows.

I already listed my favorite dramas:

  • Breaking Bad

  • The Sopranos

  • The Wire

  • The Americans

  • Better Call Saul

Then I also love The Shield, The Leftovers, Succession, and Ozark.

For current dramas:

  • White Lotus

  • Squid Game

  • Severance

  • Last Of Us

  • Night Agent

  • Beef

  • Silo (kind of)

  • Shrinking (also hilarious)

  • Fallout

  • Day of the Jackal

  • Lincoln Lawyer

Yeah, I like tv.

As for comedies:

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm

  • Seinfeld

  • Brooklyn 99

  • Always Sunny

  • Arrested Development

  • Veep

  • The League

  • Silicon Valley

  • The Office (US)

  • Nathan For You

  • Detroiters

  • I Think You Should Leave

  • Mr. Show

  • Schitt’s Creek

  • Ghosts

  • Parks & Rec

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

Probably not ever going to happen, but I liked this idea from Heather:

🎬 Upcoming Videos

  • Eventually I’ll do another Attic Find Friday — I have a bunch of these again, including an old one that I reached out to the subjects of and got a bunch of info

  • #49-45 of my ACE 100 list

  • A subscriber’s killer music card collection — I keep putting this one off because it’s big and intimidating

  • Amazing ticket collection

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

  • The greatest bobblehead collection I’ve ever seen

  • Missing Caitlin Clark card in Panini checklist?

  • A 25-year wait for a collectible comes to an end

  • A crazy Topps redemption story

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

My first AMA was fun and received good feedback, so I’ll probably do another.

My big pickup video:

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

I already mentioned this, but I bought 3 cards off Chris Sewall from his recent video. One of them is in this screenshot below, another is also in this handful, and the third one was in the same box.

Chris gave me a killer deal, and for that I am grateful.

Click to start video here

I also bought a couple of items from Jeremy Donson, the Texas Snowman.

I haven’t received any of them yet, but hope to this week.

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

After I talked about Child’s Play on my AMA, I watched it with my 15-year-old Sunday morning. I watched it a ton as a kid in the late-’80s and early ‘90s, but didn’t remember much.

It held up pretty well! I’ll watch a couple more, and then move on to the tv show, which I didn’t even know existed until someone commented it.

3 out of 5 stars.

Health Update

Starting weight: 241.2

Current weight: 235.8

Weight lost: 5.4 pounds (2.2%)

Goal weight: 210

Loss required: 31.2 pounds, or 12.9%

Back to where I was a week ago. This is all mental for me. I can still physically lose weight quickly; it’s the drive and motivation that is a struggle.

On this date in sports history: 55 years ago today, on January 27th 1970, the Pittsburgh Steelers select Louisiana Tech QB Terry Bradshaw with the first pick in the NFL draft.

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