BIG Redemption Replacement Win from Panini (Evgeni Malkin!)

After one extremely good redemption replacement experience from Panini and one that wasn't quite so great, I decided to roll the dice one more time on a redemption that has been sitting dormant for the mandatory four month waiting period.

Back in July, I opened up a couple boxes of 2011-12 Titanium and pulled, among many other cards, a redemption for an autographed patch card of Kyle Okposo, serial numbered to just 15 copies. Now, while I'm not a huge Okposo fan, but then again, he did go to college at the University of Minnesota and is a USHL alumnus, so I wouldn't turn it away either.

After four months of waiting, I decided I wasn't going to wait any longer. I called Panini, and just like I did the last time I called in, I politely asked the CSR on the phone if he could try and replace it with a card from a Pittsburgh Penguins player. He looked on his computer and informed me that there were no Penguins with the same specifications (Titanium-auto-patch-/15) as the Okposo, but said he could probably branch out into another set to fill the replacement. I said that would be fine.

The next day, I received my confirmation e-mail from Panini, saying that I have a package on the way. Being as impatient as I am, instead of waiting for the package to arrive, I logged on to my Panini account to see what was heading my way. Here's what I saw.

Evgeni Malkin! Awesome! But my initial excitement was somewhat lessened when I looked at the details. If you look at the Okposo, it clearly states that the card contains a patch and an autograph. The Malkin? Nothing. It just identifies it as "Mirror Gold." My worry was that I was giving up an an autographed patch card of a good player for a serial-numbered parallel of a great player. While I do like Malkin, I would not think that would be a fair exchange, giving up both a piece of memorabilia and an autograph. Still, I figured that there was no way that Panini would replace a hit with a non-hit, so I figured I would wait and see what I got before I came to any rash judgements.

Just a few days later, I found a padded manilla envelope from Panini in my mailbox. I opened it up to see what kind of Evgeni Malkin card they thought was a "fair value" for a Kyle Okposo autographed patch card.

Needless to say, I was VERY happy when I pulled this card out of the envelope:

It may not say it in the description, but this is an AUTOGRAPHED card of Evgeni Malkin numbered 9/25. 

It just goes to show, sometimes a simple phone call, a polite demeanor and an easy request can get you some pretty amazing cards in return.