Sports Card Makers Have Zero Quality Control, Put George Brett Auto on Babe Ruth Card

I tried writing this in my normal gleeful style, but I just can't. This is some bullshit and deserves to be called out for such. Topps and Panini, the top sports card manufacturers, do not care about sports cards and they sure as hell don't give a damn about their customers, sports card collectors. (Card collectors are laughing right now saying "No shit") Both companies appear to be in a race to find out who can have the worst quality control. Every day on Twitter and Instagram, there are people showing off their new sports cards and many of them not for good reason. There are of course the standard printing and cutting errors, but wrong and missing autos and patches are now a common occurrence. Not just on common base cards either. Major mistakes are being made with rare 1 of 1 cards (meaning there's only one of them in existence) including those that are SUPPOSED to include the autograph of Babe Ruth.

Collectors spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars, for these boxes of cards in hopes they will pull a rare card. Almost every time, the cards you pull will not make up for the cost of the packs. That's a known going into it, but there was always the small chance you pull a major card that makes up for all the misses. Now, it seems like that small chance isn't even there.

Panini has never had good customer service. It takes them years to fulfill redemption cards (IOU's) they themselves put into their product and at least 25% of the time, they don't even attempt to do that.

When it comes to error cards, you're most likely shit out of luck. A Panini rep, if you got a hold of one, would probably tell you to just be happy you got anything before they spit on you and walk away. Panini currently has the NFL and NBA license, but they are losing those in a few years to Topps. They are basically a dead company walking just waiting to either file bankruptcy or sell to Topps. I wish I could say the problems will end when that happens, but Topps is having the same issues.

Here are just a few more examples of the quality control or rather lack there of.

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Those last two cards seem overly egregious. We have a Redskins patch, one that hasn't been used by the Washington team for 3 years, on a Sauce Gardner rookie card for the Jets and a Dolphins patch on Bailey Zappe Patriots card. I don't expect every person working in the printing facility to know every sports team, but these aren't even close to being right.

Until these basic errors stop happening, I don't see myself buying anymore boxes or packs from Panini or Topps. I'm going to focus on single cards and my personal collection. Best of luck to those still willing to take a chance on these companies not screwing you.