Published October 19, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

In the hobby, few things feel more deflating than pulling a redemption. You tear through a box, heart racing, hands shaking—and instead of the autograph you were promised, you receive a soulless piece of cardboard—a glorified I.O.U. stamped with an expiration date that, if you’re opening older product, has likely already passed. And even when it hasn’t, the chances of ever seeing that actual card are about as reliable as the redemption process itself.

That tiny rectangle of stock, with its printed sticker and scratch-off code, represents everything frustrating about how manufacturers have handled collectors’ trust. Whether it’s Panini, Fanatics, or any card company that relies on redemptions, the message is the same: “We’ll get to it when we get to it.” Sometimes you wait weeks. Sometimes months. And sometimes years. Other times, if/when it finally does arrive, the player’s long out of their respective league—and the card’s lost all relevance, value, and meaning it was supposed to hold.

When you finally reach out to customer “support” for answers, you’re met with indifference—a maze of automated replies, empty apologies, and vague assurances that lead nowhere. It doesn’t matter how “valuable” the card is—what’s lost isn’t just cardboard, but trust.

As Geoff Wilson recently discussed on his show, Panini’s redemption process in particular has long been a disaster—slow, understaffed, apathetic. But even as the era shifts to Fanatics and Topps, the system itself still feels broken. Collectors deserve better than placeholder promises.

For years, collectors have grown accustomed to the familiar sight—plain Panini mailers arriving months (or years) after the initial thrill of the pull has long faded—each one a quiet reminder of a process that’s become more about patience than passion.

Despite the broken system and lack of customer service, I do want to be fair to the manufacturers. We understand that not every athlete signs their cards and that it’s virtually impossible to fulfill every single autograph in every product. In many cases, the companies are simply at the mercy of the athletes—and that part is understandable.

But fairness goes both ways. So instead of accepting the status quo, let’s reimagine what redemption fulfillment could look like if the industry actually evolved with intent—placing creativity and collector experience at the forefront, instead of convenience and cost-cutting. For an industry driven by “innovation”, this shouldn’t be a tall order. We can do better than black/white box replacements or simply extending redemption expiration dates by a decade—an announcement that honestly felt more like satire than progress.

What if, instead of a plain white filler, we received something worth keeping? A thoughtfully designed insert that actually fits the set—a piece with aesthetic and emotional value. A redemption that isn’t a disruption or a burden, but a continuation of the story. The code could even be invisible or scannable—something secure, seamless, and non-destructive. Because no collector should have to scratch away a card’s beauty just to claim what they were already owed.

Redemptions don’t have to be symbols of disappointment. They could be reminders of trust—evidence that the companies making billions off collectors actually care about the collector’s experience.

The year is 2025. We have self-driving cars, supercomputers in our pockets, and artificial intelligence reshaping entire industries. Yet somehow, we’re still stuck scratching cardboard for an I.O.U. passed off as a “redemption”—part of a process that’s already proven clunky, outdated, and stacked against collectors. What this hobby needs isn’t another outdated system—it needs innovation, transparency, and genuine respect for the collectors who keep it alive.

#CollectorsMD
The hobby moves forward when accountability replaces excuses—when those in power stop cashing in on empty promises and start honoring them.

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