2010 Topps Chrome Wrapper Redemption results

I had amassed four hobby boxes of 2010 Topps Chrome. I held onto them until about February 25th when I packaged them up (24 wrappers in each box) in a nice Amazon.com box to be sent for my redemption. Now I know the deadline was the 28th and I was cutting it close but I was hoping they meant POSTMARKED by the 28th.

Luckily my redemption wrappers arrived Friday March 4th which was amazing turn around.

Here are the results in the order I opened the packs:

Pack 1: Babe Ruth, Jason Heyward, Tyler Colvin
Pack 2: Starlin Castro, Jackie Robinson, Stephen Strasburg
Pack 3: Austin Jackson, Ty Cobb, Mike Leake
Pack 4: Lou Gehrig, Mike Stanton, Carlos Santana (green refractors)

The first three packs contained refractors as is stated on the back of the cards themselves. But the final pack were green refractors numbered to 599. Every 10th pack is a green fractor pack according to the Topps website.




I really like this concept for a few reasons. For one, YOU GET CARDS! You take those unwanted pack wrappers and mail those suckers right back to Topps and magically they give you cards. Secondly, I think this lends to the possibility of Topps recycling the materials and reusing them in other packaging materials. Topps gets cheap material to reuse and it doesn't end up in a landfill, win-win.

I do have a question though. While I'm sure this is a "while supplies last" offer. But what happens to all the unclaimed cards? Do they stay in the Topps vault? The wrapper redemption is probably not a new concept but I'm sure it's not a widely embraced concept. I'm sure there are people who threw away all their wrappers or only bought a few packs which wouldn't make for a complete 24. Will these cards show up in other products or maybe even on the Topps Card Giveaway (whatever name it has for each year)?

Either way, I'm really happy with the redemption and I have one box of 24 Bowman Chrome wrappers I plan on turning in. Hope I get something good.