I Won A Topps Giveaway, Again!

A couple months ago, I won a giveaway posted on Topps's Instagram page.  The giveaway was for a box of Topps Strata.  Little did I know, I would win again the last day of the National.  I was nominated this time by my little buddy, Nick C., who I have done some trades with and also met at the National.  He messaged me that Sunday night to let me know that I had won and had I seen that Topps tagged me.  I never got the notification... because they misspelled my name in the tag!  They were supposed to tag my Instagram account (wregenthal) but accidentally tagged (wregental).  So, I never got the notification.

The plot thickened, though, when Nick showed me that someone had created an Instagram account with the name, and had pulled a couple of my posts from the National and posted them on their page.  I was confused, so I messaged the person to let them know that I didn't appreciate them creating an account that was so close to my name.  My fear was that they were planning on scamming a few people based on the reputation that I had built these last few years.  I was up til 1AM messaging this kid back and forth.  I also was getting notifications from members of the card community who were tagging me in posts on Topps's page explaining that they had misspelled my name, and the person created a fake account so they could claim the prize.

Frustrated that the person wasn't budging on closing the account, I went to sleep.  I woke up the next morning to a huge apology message from the kid asking for my forgiveness for trying to deceive Topps.  It seems that they messaged him themselves and told him the he would not be winning the prize.  Worst of all, this is a 14-year old kid.  I accepted his apology and gave him a few words about how he should work to conduct himself better in the community.  We chatted for a while, and he seemed to be a decent enough person.  So, I gave him some collecting tips, checked out the card videos he posted on his card page and actually completed a trade.

It wasn't long after the trade that he disappeared from the community, but not before pretty much messaging me out of the blue and telling me he didn't want to talk or do any more trades.  I decided that I would move on, because I felt like I had done plenty to help the kid, and didn't need to extend a hand in helping him any further.  My hope is that one day, he will grow up and realize that he was really lucky that I showed him some compassion and forgiveness for his mistake.  I definitely didn't have to!

So, I did get the prize from the giveaway.  This realy cool 2016 Allen & Ginter Clayton Kershaw National Exclusive 1/1.  I have had a few people ask if it was available, but I think that I am going to hold onto it.  One, because Kershaw is a badass, and two, it will serve as a reminder that the community backed me up 100%.  I am really appreciative that so many people (and quite a few of them I had never even talked to) messaged Topps to try to fix the problem.