You don’t have to dig very deep to find stories about cards going out the back door in collecting. It’s only natural for employees making low wages to want to earn some extra cash. In Pete Williams’ book ‘Card Sharks’, he even wrote about the “Mexican Mafia” and their intricate ways of stealing Upper Deck cards.
So while this practice is not something new or uncommon, one would think you’d be at least a little smart about how you unload stolen and/or backdoored cards. Well someone didn’t tell eBay user “CargoLargo” who placed on eBay a giant lot of 2008 Bowman Chrome cards which included:
1,482 Rene Rosoni autographs
480 of 500 Rene Tosoni Refractor autographs
241 of 250 Rene Tosoni Xfractor autographs
142 of 150 Rene Tosoni Blue Refractor autographs
44 of 50 Rene Tosoni Gold Refractor autographs
23 of 25 Rene Tosoni Orange Refractor autographs
PLUS
24 of 25 Tim Bascom Orange Refractor autographs
It’s clear that Topps Company a victim here. Someone either stole these cards from them or they were delivered to the wrong address and are being sold illegally. After all, these cards feature on-card autographs and had to be sent to the players to sign. Unfortunately, this is one reason why card companies use sticker autographs.
Topps is currently hard at work dealing with the situation.
You can view the auctions while they are still up HERE.
(h/t – Freedom Cardboard)
The seller profile says they specialized in underpriced goods from lost freight shipments. Apparently no one told them you should try to contact someone if you just happen to stumble upon a package containing nearly every autographed card of a specific player for a current sports card release.
Dumbass…
If you’re gonna steal stuff from your employer, at least steal someone good!
Also, who is that friggin’ stupid to list them all in one auction? If they knew this stuff was “missing” you would think they’d try and be more discrete. Hello, this is the internet!
Actually Cargo Largo has every right to sell these, it was part of unclaimed freight that they purchased. This isn’t one guy, it’s a company that buys and sells crap no one claimed. Legally it’s theirs and not Topps.
Isn’t that something. Unclaimed freight. Very interesting. Please have updates on this situation in the future.
chemgod is right. Topps is going to have to probably buy them back or produce more. I don’t think these cards were stolen.
Here is a quote from their About Me page:
“CargoLargo is able to bring you significant savings by buying lost freight shipments, unclaimed freight, manufacturer and distributor overstocks, and close-out merchandise from the United States and beyond. Our prices are well below retail not just “Internet retail”, but below “brick-and-mortar” retail.”
I know exactley what happened here!
Ok, so i got a redemption for a tosoni chrome auto. I kept getting delayed, and topps told me when they finnaly got him to sign, the shippment got lost/ damaged. This guy obviosly got the shippment or found these in the damaged shippment in the trash or somewere and now is selling them. So now instead of 50 orange rene autos, there are 100 in cirrculation and so on.
why would you ever buy something from a seller with over 200 negs in the past year?
Tom that is out of nearly 13000 transactions.
Who the heck is Rene Tosoni anyway? And what’s left of his arm after signing 2,500 autographs….a few tendons?
F*#K it, I’m bidding!
If this guy turned out to be good, or even just got hot for a few months, this could be a HUGEEE pickup..
I love this.
How am I suppose to get the Tosoni base back if I sent in my redemption card!!
Topps will get these back, however they have to do it.
This is a GIANT black eye for them if they don’t.
This is a potential windfall for the guy who seems determined to be the high bidder for all the lots up for bid.
and platypus, you know jack shit, because Topps
HASN’T made more of these cards, so there AREN’T double the amount of ANYTHING.
I’m still waiting for my Tosoni blue refractor auto…..with no offer of a make-good from Topps.
That’s gotta be a hella fun business, buying cool unclaimed crap.
Wow, a little venom there, Mr. Anon.
Unless it’s a Topps employee as the high bidder, noone is going
to have a “windfall” from these. They will end up back at Topps.
Trust me.
I am shocked this auction is still live.
Two weeks ago it took UD a couple of hours to kill the auction of a very nasty card after it was posted on the Blowout Forums.
if it is still live, it must mean that Topps has reviewed the legality and cant do anything
Having seen the inside workings of carriers, here is what I think happened:
Tosoni signed all those cards and sent them back to Topps. Package got damaged or the label ripped off it in transit and became unidentifiable.
Then either Topps didnt follow up too hard to have UPS (or Fedex or whichever else they use) find their missing package or the guys handling unknown packages were too dumb to realize all those cards had to belong to Topps.
Topps can’t kill anything. The seller bought the cards fair and square. Perfectly legal.
They havent made more YET. They will though and there will be double. Your the one who know jack shit.
charlie,
what you read as “venom’ from ANON, i read as someone who’s just as pissed as i am at Topps.
I’ve also been waiting for about a year for my Gold refractor tosani auto, and was told by a Topps rep a few months ago that they were due to ship “shortly”.
Then i received an email a couple weeks later that the cards had been received and they were beginning fulfillment “shortly”.
Nearly three months later, STILL nothing.
now i know why….and I definitely want something above and beyond for my wait, and for the false info i was given.
And while you might be right that ANON was a little harsh with platypus….he’s right, the guy’s talking out of his ass.
i’ve been checking ebay for months now, and NONE of these cards in question have shown up…NONE.
If Topps had gone out of their way to make more to honor their redemptions received, surely SOME of those cards would have reached ebay….but none did, because those replacements platypus imagined Topps produced don’t exist.
As to the potential “windfall”……UNLESS topps wins those auctions, they have NO say over the matter of what happens to them.
They can’t sue the buyer, because he didn’t steal the cards.
they can’t sue the seller, because they didn’t steal the cards.
their only possible recourse is against the shipping agent, if even that.
So they’re going to have to buy back the cards, one way or another.
Anyone know what they gave the guy who pulled all those variation shortprints out of his 2009 Heritage blaster in exchange for returning them all?
People don’t seem to be paying attention and reading exactly what each auction contains, cuz it’s not ALL the cards sold at once like I was assuming..
For example, there’s 3 separate auctions for the regular non-refractor Bowman Chrome Auto.. They contain 498, 484, and 500 cards.. But the 3 current prices are $300, $61, and $100, respectively – which doesn’t make alot of sense seeing as they’re all for the same thing.. I bet some of the bidders don’t realize what they’re actually bidding on, and you have to actually check to see what each auction contains.
yep Thomas, that seems to be the case.
when I first saw this I thought two things- either they are really stupid or have nothing to hide. looks to be the latter. they bought it fair and square, now they are selling it. Too bad I wasnt the one who found them.
See, this is interesting, because there are a few things that could play in Topps favour with this case.
My first question is whether or not the rear of the card has the Topps Serial numbered sticker. Essentially, if this card is not complete, Topps may have a case against this guy.
Topps could *potentially* say that these cards have a negative impact on the brand, and by selling them, reduce the value of the brand. Asking him to sell them with the Topps name removed or punched out, would probably be their recourse.
Obviously it’s strange, because most things sold this way, you can remove the *name* without reducing the usability of the product. Unfortunately for baseball cards, removing the label would make the cards worthless.
I’d also imagine that Topps could dispute the validity of the autograph.
While the majority of you are right, you can re-sale freight. You cannot resell an unfinished/unauthenticated product and use the name behind it to raise the price, while simultaneously devaluing the brand.
I’m trying to think of an example, but something like unfinished Guess jeans could not be sold as a completed pair of guess jeans. Guess would more than likely demand that the tags be removed.
My first question is whether or not the rear of the card has the Topps Serial numbered sticker.
Some of the auctions have the backs of the cards pictured, and they have serial numbers stamped, and holo stickers.
Sounds more like Topps messed this one up. Great auction and looks like they have nothing to hide to me. They sell a ton of great stuff and look like a reputable business. Check out all their stuff if you don’t believe me. http://www.cargolargo.com
I just cut a NICE deal to get all these cards, not sure what i am doing with them all yet though.
Todd,
Let me know when they arrive. Would love to see them all photographed in one place.
Will you discuss what the price was?
I was watching them all and just noticed all bids dropped to 0 and they all ended.
That’s because of “todd”?
Anonymous,
I don’t know. If he’s telling the truth it could be one hell of a deal.
I call shennanigans.
Well, I hope cargolargo’s prepared to deal with the disgruntled bidder who happened to have the high bids on all 7 auctions when they chose to cancel all bids with only 1 day to go…..
You never know what might happen to their other auctions…….karma can be a bitch.
Seems like a pussy move by cargolargo to me, especially if this guy Todd is telling the truth by some chance.
More than likely, cargolargo was bought off by Topps, and that explains the cancellations.
Makes sense. I mean sure, Topps blows a relatively small wad of cash on something that was actually already theirs, but as you can see from above comments, they have customer loyalty and confidence at stake; not to mention the integrity of a big money maker set release. Probably well worth whatever they might have bought them back with.
More than likely, cargolargo was bought off by Topps, and that explains the cancellations.
This seems much more probable than some Shmo cutting some big deal.. I could see maybe if the auctions weren’t getting any action, but that wasn’t the case – he was on pace to get at least a couple thousand for everything..
Just to let you know all those cards were signed by Rene with the Top’s rep. who then left with them.