2012 Topps Archives Has Created a Spark

It's not that I am bored of collecting, or reading about or sorting through baseball cards, it's just that nothing has been released recently that has piqued my interest and got me really excited about the hobby.  That is, of course, until 2012 Topps Archives came about.

Great move here by Topps. Knowing their demographic, they brought the nostalgic feeling for those of us that collected back in the 80's.  Right down to the wrappers, which resemble old (1988?) wax packs.  As soon as I opened the first blaster I bought I was hooked!  Above is my new favorite Hunter Pence card.  This captures his personality perfectly. He's goofy and so is this card.

This was the first 3-D card I pulled.  These don't blow me away, but they are kind of cool, nonetheless.

A part of this set I don't really like are the floating head cards. What is it with Topps and floating heads? Don't they seem to appear in so many sets?  Considering Mark Teixeira is one of my least favorite players maybe that is giving me the bias.

Ahh, Ryan Howard.  Ryan is down in Clearwater, Florida participating in extended spring training, and word on the street is that he might be back sometime before the All-Star break.  We'll see about that.

And finally, for this batch of Archives cards, Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmerman. To say these two are having good seasons would be an understatement.  These are two of the best young pitchers in the game, and they have helped propel the Nationals to their current first place standing.  I believe Strasburg is a lock to throw a no-hitter a few times in his career.  His stuff is just that good.  

I am going to attempt to collect this set, although every quest I have set out on has ultimately failed.  I think I like this set enough to actually go for it, though.  I am getting ideas together of things I need to acquire when I attend the National Sports Collectors Convention all five days in August.  I need to go in with a plan, and that plan is still being formulated.  Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

I Don't Typically Use the Blog for This

And by typically, I mean I never have used the blog for what I'm about to write.  Since you probably come here to read about baseball cards and/or baseball, I'll keep it as short as possible, though I think we can all relate.

Customer service.

Some experiences exceptionally good, some experiences exceptionally bad, but most somewhere in between.  It seems we tend to remember the bad experiences more than the good, but that is just human nature.

So I have an iPad, I use it everyday for work and also at night to watch Phillies and other baseball games on mlb.tv.  Though I have a Smart Cover that doubles as a stand of sorts, it is still not very sturdy, and my cat likes to knock it over with his paw.  Something about me not paying attention to him and instead watching baseball.  I've been meaning to get a new stand, something more sturdy, but just haven't gotten around to it.  That's where Woot comes in.

If you're not familiar with it, www.woot.com is a site that does "a deal a day."  One day it might be a refurbished Dyson vacuum, the next it might be a new high megapixel calendar.  Not all high end stuff, but mostly stuff that people find useful to help simplify life.  I check the site once a day just to see what's there, and a few weeks ago I found it.

The Bean Pad!

The Bean Pad is an iPad holder with a small bean bag attached. It is movable so you can view the iPad from any angle.  It was $14.99 on woot.com so it was a no brainer. Especially since it normally retails for $60.

So it arrived, and I took it out of the box, and something was odd. One of the corners had completely snapped off and was in the bottom of the box it came in.  Crap.

(I INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST TO CONGRATULATE JOHAN SANTANA ON THE FIRST NO HITTER EVER IN METS HISTORY) 


I was thinking I would just glue it, but no.  I decided to go to Woot to see what to do about a return.  Go to the manufacturer, they said.  Their involvement ends with the sale.

The company that manufactures the Bean Pad is called Vantage Point.  They make many items to mount tvs, speakers, etc.

Ok this story is getting really long.  I went to the contact form, emailed them explaining my issue, and within a day I received a message back from a real live person, asking me for a picture of the broken item, and saying that it would be no problem to replace it.

That's it.  Not, return it to us and then we will send you another, not, we don't do that, nothing except making the experience great for me, the customer.  The customer service guy named John emailed me a FedEx tracking number and the brand new, unbroken Bean Pad arrived yesterday.  I am using it right now.

In a world where so much is negative, I just wanted to share a positive.  And I highly recommend the Bean Pad.  Want one?  When the new one arrived they send me a 30% off anything on their site code.  Shoot me an email and I will give it to you.

Thanks for the breath of fresh air, Vantage Point!