Andrew Luck is probably the most hyped about Quarterback to enter the draft this year, and Leaf had their chance at first dibs of selling his name in sports cards – and they blew it!
Leaf announced they were offering the first licensed Andrew Luck cards on the market via auction – but quickly took them off the market. 350 prismatic cards were printed and posted at a buy it now auction, but then quickly pulled off when they realized several key spelling errors. Anderw? Hight? Let’s just say this was on unlucky call for Leaf.
The other Luck cards licensed by U.S. Army All-American Game came printed with no errors, limited to 500 and started at around $9.99.
While Leaf said they would honor the 39 individuals who had already purchased the card, and destroy the rest to correct the problem – didn’t they severely miss their mark here? The One-of-One super prismatic went sky high when the error was pointed out, as this rare card was not recognized as being ever rarer, but Leaf cancelled the auction once the error was noticed.
I think Leaf should’ve kept their error cards in auction. It adds hype to the product, and makes it unique, more desirable by some collectors even. I distinctly remember in NASCAR’s hay day, a Dale Earnhardt, Jr A C Delco 1:24 die cast being misspelled right on the box, sending the price of the product soaring to ridiculous heights. Since Andrew Luck is expected to be the number one draft pick in 2012 NFL draft – this would’ve been an incredible way to start his products with a bang, and with high value at that.
However, Leaf decided to reprint all the cards, and is expecting to start selling them in the same auction style as before – around February 7th. My only advice to them, add an editor to their staff in the near future.
Photos via google image search.
