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Upper Deck Moving to 45-Day Redemption Fulfillment Program
Jul 20 2007 1:38PM
Upper Deck is revamping its redemption card process by moving to a 45-day fulfillment program. The announcement follows the statement of UD president and founder Richard McWilliam who announced his goal at the sports card industry's annual trade conference in Ft. Lauderdale just three months ago.
In September of 2006, Upper Deck identified and partnered with more than 200 direct hobby shops to serve as Preferred Redemption Centers for the company. The goal was to offer enhanced service to these shops for fulfilling redemptions on behalf of their customers.
Autograph cards redeemed through these Preferred Redemption Centers will be fulfilled within 45 days, according to UD. If the card is not available after 45 days, the hobby retailer will receive a message asking if they wish to have the card exchanged. If they choose to have it exchanged for the customer, they can submit a list of what the customer is interested in and a comparable card will be sent out within the week. If they want that particular card, they have the option to continue to wait as well.
"We realize every collector is different," said Chris Carlin, hobby marketing manager for Upper Deck. "Some people want to move on and get a replacement piece after a few weeks. Other collectors are not so concerned with how long it takes and want us to continue to chase these athletes down until they ultimately sign. We will assist our customers with whichever option they prefer. This is just another way we are enhancing the redemption process to deliver the best customer experience possible."
The company has made other strides in reducing the total amount of autograph redemptions being released in sets over the last few months as well.
"We have chosen to work more with players we have great relationships with and who we know can get the autograph cards back in a timely fashion," said Carlin. "These partnerships with premier athletes have allowed us to enhance content and reduce the amount of redemption cards we have to use … Our ultimate goal is to release every product on time, without redemption cards entirely."
Upper Deck has also recently added several Canadian hobby shops to the Preferred Redemption Program. For a list of Preferred Redemption Centers in the US and Canada
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