The Dreaded Sticker Conundrum

As collectors there is nothing quite as disappointing as pulling out one of those dreaded blue redemption cards out of a pack of Topps brand product.  The usual scenarios start running through my head when I pull one:

• How long I am going to have to wait for this card?
• Will the card ever actually be mailed out?
• If the card is never mailed out, will the replacement card be a fair replacement?

On and on and on we could go about the negatives of redemption cards.  This post is a little different than the normal redemption post.  I recently ended up with one of the blue redemption cards out of an old box of Bowman.  

Hentgen was a former Cardinals player, just for a year, so naturally I was somewhat more willing to play along with the whole redemption thing than normal.  Plus, a quick search of Ebay showed that there were several redeemed copies of these cards floating around already.  I was hoping that would be a good sign that I would actually see the card, possibly sooner than later.  

All of which brought up a conundrum with the recent redemption cards that have been mailed out by Topps.  Almost every single one of them now comes with a white sticker with a red Topps logo acting as a seal across the top of the top loader.  If you are not familiar, here's an example:

I have seen several arguments about what to do with these stickers?  Do you take them off?  I've seen that.  Do you leave them on?  I've seen that.  If someone takes one of the stickers off the cards, do other collectors trading and buying those cards complain?  I've seen that.  So, what do I think about the red sticker?  Here is my redeemed Pat Hentgen card.....

Now, if I were going to trade or sell this card I would not entertain the thought of taking that red and white sticker off of the top loader.  Honestly, in the long run I am not sure it's really going to matter.  In 20 years, is anyone really going to remember, or care about, which cards were a redemption and not?  Doubtful.  Still, if I am going to sell or trade something I am not going to take the chance of making someone unhappy.  

Since I am keeping this one though......

The sticker over Hentgen's face really bother me when I pulled the card out of the envelope.  Plus, it's not like this is going anywhere.  If a card is going to stay in my collection I want to be able to look at it, see the picture on the front, look at the stats and write up on the back, etc.  You know fun.