Topps Replacements for 2014 Five Star Marshawn Lynch Redemptions

I had two outstanding redemptions for 2014 Topps Five Star Marshawn Lynch which have been outstanding for years -- almost three years now.  At this point, it's quite clear that the cards will never be signed.  Panini has the exclusive license to produce NFL cards.  Topps has given up fulfilling outstanding football redemptions as a result.  This isn't something that they've publicly admitted but it's been reported on the Blowout Cards Forums by a few individuals who have spoken with Topps representatives.

I really wish that these cards would be made, so it sucked to finally give up and ask for a replacement.  If I didn't ask for a replacement now, the pool of possible replacement cards would get worse and worse as time went on as more people asked for replacements.

I honestly was not expecting anything good because I've read so many horror stories about Topps replacements since Panini has taken over the NFL licensing rights.

But to my absolute surprise, I got some decent cards!  I got a Matt Jones 2015 Topps rookie autograph, a 2015 Topps Fire Melvin Gordon autograph patch rookie card #/50, a 2014 Topps Finest Brandin Cooks patch autograph gold parallel #/50, a 2014 Topps Finest Jimmy Garoppolo autograph patch rookie card, and a 2015 Topps Chrome Marcus Murphy rookie autograph!

Obviously, the Brandin Cooks and Jimmy Garoppolo cards are the real jewels of this replacement pack.

I can't say that I'm disappointed.  Of course I would have wanted my Marshawn Lynch autographs, but getting two top notch 2014 rookies out of Finest is solid!

I think Topps did me good on these replacements.

Topps Replacement

For the longest time I had been waiting on an outstanding Vance McDonald redemption from 2013 Bowman Chrome.  The redemption was for the short print variation which showed the player in his pro NFL uniform.

Without any notice, I received replacements in the mail from Topps.  I guess they had finally decided to give up on attempting to get the cards signed from Vance McDonald.

Here are my replacements.

I'm actually thinking that this is a slight upgrade.  Vance McDonald hasn't been a huge impact for the 49ers.  Instead of his autograph, I now have the autograph of A.J. McCarron who is the backup QB for the Cincinnati Bengals and who played well pretty well in 2015.

The Nick Foles jersey is just a bonus from Topps.  I appreciate the bonus, but it's a pretty worthless bonus.