A redemption card is usually put in place of (usually) an autograph card. The stickers (more common now) and/or cards are sent to the player. He get's paid a certain amount for each sticker/card he signs and sends them back. If they go into production and packaging without the cards/stickers, then they put a redemption card in them.
So when you redeem the redemption cards, the Trading Card Company will either have gotten the player's card or sticker onto the card back and they will ship you out the card that's on the Redemption card. Or...they will send you out a player of that player on the cards quality. Usually they do a little bit better.
That's why now in days, card companies are going with "Sticker Autos" because it's easier for them to just hand out a bunch of stickers to the player and have him sign 1,000 of them stickers and have them return it to them at one time and then they can have them year round to place on cards during different production times of the year.
Cards were the norm back about 5 years ago. But since they had to print these cards way ahead of production and distrubtion dates, have them signed by the player, it was too much difficulty obtaining the cards back before distrubtion hit.
