Two Prime 9 wins

Way back in February, Jeroen at The Dutch Card Guy offered a bribe to anyone who would add him to their blogroll. Since I was already following him in my rss reader, I figured it was just the boost I needed to motivate me to update my blogroll. I wound up with 2 Prime 9 redemption cards mailed all the way from The Netherlands.

2012 Topps - Prime 9 Redemption #1

2012 Topps - Prime 9 Redemption #2

9 days later, Sam at The Daily Dimwit slipped a stealth contest into his post, to see who was reading and who was just looking at the photos. I jumped in and won 5 (already redeemed) Prime 9 cards.

2012 Topps - Prime 9 #HRL-1 Hank Aaron

2012 Topps - Prime 9 #HRL-2 Babe Ruth

2012 Topps - Prime 9 #HRL-3 Willie Mays

2012 Topps - Prime 9 #HRL-4 Reggie Jackson

2012 Topps - Prime 9 #HRL-6 Mickey Mantle

There's a bit more of a story to this than just the cards though, which is partly of why this post got delayed. For some reason, I didn't check my mail on February 18th. I rarely let the mail sit in the mailbox overnight, but I think I was busy that day and just didn't think about it by the time I got home. Sunday afternoon I realized I forgot it, and checked, not thinking anything of it. Of course, the two redemption cards were in there. I opened it up, and looked at the dates to see when I could redeem. As you see in the scan, week 1 ended February 19th, but the caveat is that the only card shops in town that I knew redeemed these were both closed on Sundays.

My first thought was that I had wasted the card, but then I realized, surely the shop owners had a pile of these cards, and would probably redeem it a week late, even if maybe they couldn't send in the card for entry in the contest described on the back. The following Saturday, during Week 2 of the redemption, I went to One Million Baseball Cards, picked out a few of the slightly-overpriced singles from the 2011 Gypsy Queen box (i.e. sucking up with a purchase), and showed the cards to the gentleman working. He told me they didn't even have their cards in yet! He told me I could redeem them whenever they come in, regardless of the date, and then he offered to take my name down and call when they come in, but I told him not to sweat it and I'd just give him a ring in a week or two. He then asked if I had any of the 2011 Prime 9 cards, and I told him "a few, but not all", and he flipped this guy to me.

2011 Topps - Prime 9 #PNR5 Mike Schmidt

I thought that was pretty awesome of him, and that was one I didn't have. A few weeks later I went back and redeemed the cards for another copy of 1 and 2, so maybe I can trade those for a 5, 7, and/or 9 at some point. I found it interesting that Sam's shop had the cards far enough in advance that he was able to get his hands on 5 of the first 6 before the first redemption day, and mine didn't even have them two weeks in. It seems like something Topps should tighten up if they're really trying to encourage people to go to hobby shops over retail.

Thanks again to The Daily Dimwit and The Dutch Card Guy for the giveaways, it's always fun to get prizes in the mail.