Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ What are "Buyback" cards?

[vintage]

I'm sure this is a stupid question, but I mostly just collect vintage cards, so I'm not familiar with a lot of what's going on in the current world of trading cards. I saw on ebay a "Topps 2011 American Pie Buyback card" and the card just looked like one from the old movie The Black Hole from 1979. When I did a search for a variety of phrases trying to figure out what the deal was, I just found a bunch of sites (including a lot of listings on ebay) selling a variety of "Buyback" cards. If you get one of those cards, will Topps reimburse you for the pack that you bought or something? It seems strange to get a card from 1979 in a pack of cards from 2011.

[northicehero99]

Buyback cards are pretty much just that. The manufacturers are buying back cards on ebay or from dealers and then repackaging them into new products and calling them "buybacks". Upper Deck has done that for a while now in different products and a few others also do it. Someone did it in OPC a few years back and actually used a press of some sort to put an impression on the cards so you could tell they were buybacks.

[vintage]

Thanks!

[urbanmonk]

Also sometimes they buyback the cards and then have the Athlete autograph them. They are original cards that were bought and then re-released into a newer product. Usually they are stamped like Brian said or they put a Holo sticker on it and a matching one on another card that explains the card (ie: This is a 05-06 SPx Joe Schmo card that was purchased and then signed by Joe and put into 12-13 SPx product ....etc..)

[ffman]

Welcome to TCC!