for an autographed card of Ben Zobrist. This is one of a very limited number of certified autographs he has had while with the Cubs. I always get nervous with these redemptions because I've read horror stories of waits of more that a couple years.
Lo and behold on December 20th I got notification from Topps that the package was on the way. Yay!
The package was coming via FedEx and would be delivered to the WW Headquarters on December 22. Boo! I was going to be out of town from the 22nd - 26th visiting family for Christmas. I didn't want a package sitting on my porch for all that time, just asking to be taken.
I asked a neighbor to grad the package and put it between the doors. He emailed me that no package was there.
I went to the Fed Ex site and saw that it required a signature. Since no one was home, the package went back to the depot. I knew that if they tried again the next few days it would be the same story and I was afraid that they would then return it to Topps and I'd never see it again.
More digging on the Fed Ex site led me to see that I could have it held at a local Walgreens. I could then pick it up from Walgreens when we got home after Christmas. I put in that request. It was going to be at Walgreens on December 27, the day after we got home. Perfect.
All day on the 27th I checked the tracking. It never got to Walgreens. I did the same on the 28th and still nothing. I was getting nervous.
I called Fed Ex and they made a call. Turns out the depot where it was being held had computer issues and wasn't getting any customer service requests. I'm not sure how they could function, but whatever. The guy on the phone said that the package would be at Walgreens the next day.
I checked the tracking number in the morning and it showed the package was moving. A few hours later it showed as delivered. I zipped up to Walgreens and picked it up.
Ben needs to work on his penmanship!
The relic says "Walking Man" in reference to him setting a team record for walks by a switch hitter in 2016.
Ben is the 125 rule-following player in my autograph collection. And he's not even at the bottom of the A to Z list. That honor belongs to Julio Zuleta, and I don't think anyone is going to knock Julio out of that spot.
| Terry Adams | Matt Garza | Eric Patterson |
| Arismendy Alcantara | Leo Gomez | Corey Patterson |
| Albert Almora | Tom Gorzelanny | David Patton |
| Moises Alou | Kevin Gregg | Carlos Pena |
| Jake Arrieta | Angel Guzman | Billy Petrick |
| Javier Baez | Jason Hammel | Felix Pie |
| Darwin Barney | Todd Haney | Lou Piniella |
| Francis Beltran | Ian Happ | Mark Prior |
| Milton Bradley | Brendan Harris | Aramis Ramirez |
| Roosevelt Brown | Kevin Hart | Anthony Rizzo |
| Kris Bryant | Jose Hernandez | Henry Rodriguez |
| Scott Bullett | Jason Heyward | Henry Rodriguez |
| Freddie Bynum | Bobby Hill | Chris Rusin |
| Marlon Byrd | Rich Hill | Addison Russell |
| Andrew Cashner | Micah Hoffpauir | Jeff Samardzija |
| Larry Cassian | Cesar Izturis | Rey Sanchez |
| Frank Castillo | Brett Jackson | Ryne Sandberg |
| Welington Castillo | Reed Johnson | Kyle Schwarber |
| Starlin Castro | Jacque Jones | Scott Servais |
| Ronny Cedeno | Matt Karchner | Jorge Soler |
| Rocky Cherry | David Kelton | Alfonso Soriano |
| Matt Clement | Brooks Kieschnick | Sammy Sosa |
| Steve Clevenger | Bryan LaHair | Geovany Soto |
| Buck Coats | Junior Lake | Steve Smyth |
| Tyler Colvin | Derrek Lee | Matt Szczur |
| Willson Contreras | Jon Lester | Ryan Theriot |
| Juan Cruz | Cole Liniak | Ozzie Timmons |
| Wade Davis | Greg Maddux | Steve Trachsel |
| Blake DeWitt | Dave Magadan | Jermaine Van Buren |
| Rafael Dolis | Carlos Marmol | Todd Walker |
| Scott Downs | Sean Marshall | Todd Wellemeyer |
| Jason Dubuois | Scott Moore | Randy Wells |
| Carl Edwards | Matt Murton | Turk Wendell |
| Kyle Farnsworth | Rod Myers | Jerome Williams |
| Mike Fontenot | Roberto Novoa | Kerry Wood |
| Kevin Foster | Will Ohman | Travis Wood |
| Dexter Fowler | Augie Ojeda | Michael Wuertz |
| Kyuji Fujikawa | Mike Olt | Carlos Zambrano |
| Kosuke Fukudome | Ryan O'Malley | Rob Zastryzny |
| Sam Fuld | Kevin Orie | Ben Zobrist |
| Sean Gallagher | Angel Pagan | Julio Zuleta |
| Nomar Garciaparra | Bob Patterson |
I had the same issue with Fed Ex with my iPhone. It was pretty annoying. Glad Ben finally landed in your possession/collection.
ReplyDeleteNice addition. Gives me an idea for a custom design theme!
ReplyDeleteHighly possible that if you didn't ask on multiple occasions, that package would have been lost in the wind. Which is very possible there's a tie to some of those Topps horror stories about cards going missing for years. But I've seen and heard enough of them that Topps is also a large part of the blame. The soapbox is large and would need a ladder to climb.
ReplyDeleteBen has long been one of my favorite non Pirates. Glad to see him signing some Cubs cards.
ReplyDeleteSorry you had to go through all that unnecessary bs but congrats on the card.
ReplyDeleteFYI, just discovered 2 different Brooks Raley out of 2013 Panini (Select and America's Pastime). Both seem to fit your criteria.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. I need to check the unlicensed stuff more carefully. It just cost me $2.75 shipped to get a Raley select autograph!
ReplyDelete