Topps Wants To Know: Did Your Mom Throw Away Your Baseball Cards?

Topps, the Exclusive trading card partner of Major League Baseball, is celebrating Mother's Day a little bit early this year.

Beginning yesterday, www.ToppsMillion.com opened up for collectors to "unlock" their redemption cards, which are randomly inserted (1:6 packs) in 2010 Topps baseball, for a chance at reclaiming one of 38,000 different cards their mother may have tossed in the trash.

Now, I've been a die-hard collector since I was a kid (think early 1980s), so my mother never had a chance to discard my cards, so to speak. Nope, the valuable ones always went from wax pack to plastic, not unlike the kids today. But, my father's collection on the other hand, found its way into a Hefty bag and may have been recycled as part of your newspaper or coffee cup at some point over the past 40 years.

Thanks to Topps and their Million Card Giveaway, collectors now have the chance at reclaiming that coveted 1952 Mickey Mantle or 1955 Roberto Clemente rookie card or 1968 Nolan Ryan rookie card or 2001 Albert Pujols rookie card...well, you catch my drift.

And these aren't reprints—these are ORIGINALS!

The concept is simple—register online at ToppsMillion.com, and then enter in a code that can be found on the back of a Topps Million Card Giveaway redemption card. What's really cool about this Web site is that not only do you get to own the card in a virtual portfolio, which gives you the option of viewing a high-resolution image of both the front and the back your card, but you can trade with other owners in virtual reality.

And, at any time, beginning in March, you can request that Topps deliver any or all of the cards in your portfolio directly to your doorstep for a small shipping fee, which I am not privy to at the moment.

To kick-off the campaign, and to act as Spokesperson for the promotion, Topps has enlisted Cal Ripken Jr. who is currently hitting the talk show circuit with one thing on his mind—Topps. Not a bad hype-man.

Since 2010 Topps was released last month, I have collected roughly 45 redemption cards and had a ball unlocking the cards last night. The best card I pulled was a 1956 Jim Piersall, but also was lucky enough to score two 1953 commons, a 1954 common, and a 1974 Juan Marichal.

I was even offered a trade today for my Piersall card—a 1970 Ted Williams, when he was the manager of the Washington Senators. I politely passed on that offer.

So, if you're at your local hobby shop, Wal-Mart, or Target, head down to the card aisle and pick up a few packs of 2010 Topps baseball and hopefully you'll be lucky enough to pull a redemption card or two. Then let me know which original Topps card you pulled.

It might go a long way toward mending a few fences with your mother.

Oh, and if your redemption happens to unlock a nice card, perhaps we can trade.

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