This guy saw that TOPPS had an error on its website for TOPPS Now Baseball Cards and bought what he thought would be an error card.

http://www.courthousenews.com/...eanball-at-topps.htm

I have seen errors on sites such as Rittenhouse for some of there new sets. If this guy wins, then would Rittenhouse (or any other company) be required to manufacture the error card for me or anybody who saw it and ordered it before the website was corrected.

I think that particular customer needs to get a life.

I don't know why Topps didn't simply say that they had sold out of the card by the time the plaintiff put in his order and the website couldn't get updated in time - not sure how fast that would happen or would a "sold out" message flash automatically once the last card purchase was completed?

It doesn't look good that Topps may have tried to cover themselves after the fact and it won't look good if a couple of those error cards are "found in another box" and end up as Topps Vault auctions.

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:
This guy saw that TOPPS had an error on its website for TOPPS Now Baseball Cards and bought what he thought would be an error card.

http://www.courthousenews.com/...eanball-at-topps.htm

I have seen errors on sites such as Rittenhouse for some of there new sets. If this guy wins, then would Rittenhouse (or any other company) be required to manufacture the error card for me or anybody who saw it and ordered it before the website was corrected.

Yeah, I can see how the guy could sound like a whiner, but in this case, he may have a legitimate beef especially if Topps tried to cover itself later with that disclaimer from nowhere. One thing to consider is that error cards in the sports card world can carry a much higher value than those in non-sports so it's kind of a big deal. Now that it's a court case, people who didn't care about error cards before are going to look for it.

quote:

Originally posted by X:
I think that particular customer needs to get a life.

In any lawsuit like this, the person can sue for damages, but has to prove damages. He bought what he thought was an error card, TOPPS sent him a corrected card. Well perhaps that's not true, perhaps they never released an error card at all. This was TOPPS Now. They could have had the wrong first name, realized it and released only cards with the correct name.

In any event, what exactly is this man's damages? He should get his money back, I would certainly agree with that. He may have only purchased that card for the error and now there isn't one, so he should be able to return it for a full refund.

However the argument that he deserves some ridiculous sum of money because the error card could have been very valuable is not going to cut it. Only a small segment of card collectors have an interest in error cards and most error cards on the market have only a slight premium over the corrected card. In some cases it's the exact opposite, the corrected card is more limited and therefore more valuable than the error. Even error cards that once carried a high price have generally tumbled down to earth.

Companies always reword their disclaimers when they foul up. Sometimes they should be held responsible if there is intent to confuse, but this particular story is on such a minor issue, give the guy back his $3.99 or whatever and forget it.

I wonder if there actually was an error card or if it was a digital error. Did they ever send out the wrong card to anyone?

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
I wonder if there actually was an error card or if it was a digital error. Did they ever send out the wrong card to anyone?

No. The image was actually corrected on the site within a couple of hours. And because none were printed beforehand, the actual cards are all correct.

quote:

Originally posted by Ryan Cracknell:

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
I wonder if there actually was an error card or if it was a digital error. Did they ever send out the wrong card to anyone?

No. The image was actually corrected on the site within a couple of hours. And because none were printed beforehand, the actual cards are all correct.

That is exactly what I surmised happened just because it was a TOPPS Now card offer. The whole case is bogus because in fact the error card, or rather the picture of an error card, was never actually printed.

But the guy should get a refund back and maybe a little goodie bag of cards for the purpose of good customer relations. It was posted wrong for a short time, so it was their mistake. Insult him and you may wind up with a lawsuit that TOPPS doesn't need, even when the merits aren't there.

Yeah, no real damages other than the feeling of being cheated but it is a bait-and-switch. Topps can say it was a mistake, but then as you said, the guy (and anyone else who ordered the card before the image was changed) should get a refund if requested. As a gesture of goodwill, Topps might even consider printing some quantity of the card and distributing copies to those people and then auction off any extra for one or more charities (people who've lost everything due to flooding in Louisiana or wildfires in California).

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by Ryan Cracknell:

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
I wonder if there actually was an error card or if it was a digital error. Did they ever send out the wrong card to anyone?

No. The image was actually corrected on the site within a couple of hours. And because none were printed beforehand, the actual cards are all correct.

That is exactly what I surmised happened just because it was a TOPPS Now card offer. The whole case is bogus because in fact the error card, or rather the picture of an error card, was never actually printed.

But the guy should get a refund back and maybe a little goodie bag of cards for the purpose of good customer relations. It was posted wrong for a short time, so it was their mistake. Insult him and you may wind up with a lawsuit that TOPPS doesn't need, even when the merits aren't there.

This card isn't technically a misprint then since it was never printed....

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
This card isn't technically a misprint then since it was never printed....

Exactly. I also noticed this disclaimer on a current Topps Now card, not sure if it was on the original listing: "ART SUBJECT TO CHANGE. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHIC/PRINTER ERRORS"