Surprised no one has posted the latest from Dave regarding OLDS2:
Hello,
Well, I have bad news mixed with a little good news.
Bad news first (for anyone that wanted more than one box). Topps told me today that they cannot do another pre-sale link. Apparently, a number of people called into Topps complaining about me promising a select group of people the special offer again. The claim is that I am selecting people to get the special rate over other people who have as much right to it should it be offered again. Since everyone had the same warning and chance to get them they can't choose people based on my list since they also sent out a general mailing list and the links were also placed on Facebook and Twitter. They already did not have enough boxes they could release to cover the 86 people who contacted me (possibly running up to 400 more boxes) so adding anyone else would have been out of hand.
What I think happened: There were around 5-8 people that bought multiple boxes in the 20+ range. Obviously, if they had bought around 5 then pretty much everyone would have been covered. Based on last years pre-sale which was also 1000 boxes and three days no one had any idea this would sell out in 6 hours. The last pre-sale sold 985 boxes and lasted the full three days. Can't really blame Topps based on last year's results and can't really blame the heavy box buyers because they didn't have any restrictions and in fact, there were just way more buyers this time. There were many people not on my list that were left out too. It's just one of those unfortunate things. So next time around there will be a limit placed on pre-sale orders to ensure everyone has the fair chance to get around 3-5 boxes (whatever the plan is next time) at the sale price and with any shipping or goodies thrown in. We will work to make sure this situation does not happen again.
OK, the good news: I am still working on getting all 86 people at least one box at the pre-sale price and with free shipping. You just have to give me a few weeks to work it out (and finish up my getting my very late OLDS2 paintings done!). Around 20 or so people only asked for one anyway so those people will end up happy. For everyone else, not as much. BUT...Topps owes me a ton of posters for this series so what I'm going to do for anyone (of the 86 that were left out) interested is give you a free OLDS2 poster and free OLDS2 sketch poster from my stash. You would only have to pay me for the tube and shipping which we can do through PayPal when the time comes. This will come from me, not Topps so they would not be playing favorites. I would. That's a $32 (I think) value which would essentially replace the binder as a freebie and you would save some additional cash to cover the $5 more the regular price of OLDS2 will be when it goes on normal sale in late December if you choose to pick up additional boxes. The regular price is only $5 more than the pre-sale and both posters together are worth around $10 more than the binder. Hope this takes some of the sting out of the situation. With these thrown in the reality of the situation is if you were buying around 5 boxes it would cost you around $10 or so more and you'd get the 2 posters instead of the binder. For anyone who was planning to buy a lot of box for dealing or whatever you essentially will just have to factor in $5 more per box for your plans. Not too bad anyway considering the sketch card itself is potentially worth more than the entire box price.
Again, the situation is unfortunate but you never know how these things are going to play out and the fact that there is even a pre-sale at all is pretty good considering Topps does not pre-sell any of their other card lines. So at least everyone is getting some kind of discount. I tried, and based on the current situation, I think my new plan is pretty good for most of the people here. I will LYK along the way how things are progressing but I need until at least the 15th or so of this month to move it along. If you are still angry you can call Topps about it because I don't have any other pull beyond what I attempted to do!
Thanks,
Dave
