I ordered 12 sets, looking to build 2 coupon sets. After 11 sets, where the coupons were jumbled, I had no coupons 3, 8, 13, 18. The last set yielded 3, 8, 13 and 18! And, another forum member had those exact extra four coupons, and we were able to do a single trade because my extra jumbleds matched the 4 he was missing.
Please Topps, go back to all in the numbered groups!!
I had ordered 7 sets this time. I had one coupon grouping that was 5,10,15,20 in a pack, but the rest were seemingly jumbled. I did end up with an extra 1,6,11,16 set but these were not together in any of the packs. Now I wish I had written them down as I opened them. My logical brain wants to suggest there was some kind of pattern since I basically ended up with extras that comprised 2 of the "traditional" groupings. From somewhat shaky memory, I seem to remember getting several consecutively numbered coupons. For example 5,6,15,16 in one pack. I guess that would be parts of two of the traditional groupings.
I work at a place where they have to "hand-pack" certain music CD and bluray disc sets where multiple inserts are required, etc. People manually need to place these items in the jewel cases before they are shrink wrapped, whereas simple releases, such as those containing one or two discs and one insert, can be automated. I would love to see how Topps does their packaging of these sets. Could be simply that someone looses count, puts too many or too few in one pack, then the sequence gets messed up for the remaining packs that person is doing. They would in essence, inadvertently, be creating new groupings. I think a peek behind their process might help explain some of the anomalies we encounter. It would also be interesting to see if there are any quality control processes on the packaging side and what they are. I am sure they monitor the quality of the cards themselves, but is there any step to check, even a manual random check, of any of the prepared packs.