The State of Redemption Cards

The following response was sent to a customer from Panini America Vice President Jim Dryden regarding the state of redemption cards. We felt it was worth sharing with all Panini America customers. 

First of all, thanks to all Panini America customers for purchasing our products. We appreciate your business. Please know that your support is as vital to our success now as it’s ever been.

You should know that no one in the collecting community is as disheartened and frustrated by redemption cards as the men and women inside the Panini America offices. The people building our products are lifelong collectors who are extremely passionate – personally and professionally – and are extremely sensitive regarding issuing even one redemption card.

We have a keen understanding of the impact redemption cards have on the market as well as how our valued customers respond to them. We also are acutely aware of the challenges we face to substantially reduce redemptions in all of our products. These challenges include the increased overall demand for autographs (particularly hard-signed autographs), increased acquisition costs and longer player fulfillment timelines.

Simply, we detest redemption cards but must continue to cope with the fact that they’re something of a necessary evil.

To address the challenges we continue to face, we are in the process of revamping our card design, acquisitions and player fulfillment processes to better match the existing autograph environment. With these changes, we hope to substantially reduce the quantity of redemptions in future products. Please also note that we have always and will continue to respond to redemption requests as quickly as possible. The members of our Product Development and Customer Service teams know the instant player autographs arrive in our offices and they take action immediately to begin the fulfillment process.

Again, we sincerely appreciate your support of our products and completely understand collectors’ frustration with redemption cards. We do not take that lightly. Our vow to all of our customers is that we’ll keep working doggedly to improve the redemption process  with the ultimate goal of one day eliminating them altogether.

Thanks and best regards,
Jim Dryden
Vice President of Operations
Panini America