Hi Ross,
I understand where you are coming from and I also don't believe there were any written rules to that effect, so whoever is lucky enough to win the card gets to keep it whether they have the code card or not.
I'll disagree on one point, I don't believe these cards, at least in the first few months, change hands "a lot". More like once when someone who doesn't want it (for whatever reason: not their team/player, making a profit, etc) sells to someone who does want it.
Personally though, when the card gets sold, so do the "rights"/benefits of that card. An analogy: you buy a lotto ticket and give it as a present. The ticket wins. Do you get to claim it? Hell no. Why should a person who Registers a card only to onsell it get any further benefit from it? They CHOSE to trade/sell it. I do have an issue with that.
From what I've heard (and from personal experience in acquiring a Redeemed card, which I now can't even get the code info for), there have been sellers (NRL and AFL) who have posted the front and back of redeemed cards, with codes clearly visible (no comment on the "smartness" of that), only to find out that they can not Register them because someone else has used the images to do it before them. That's effectively theft.
To me it's a problem that needs to be addressed for similar future promotions - and don't get me wrong, it is/was a GREAT idea!
Regards
Mike
PS: re the Registration process, it seemed I could only get 3 or 4 done a day, then the submit button would simply not work. Took me 3 or 4 days, Registering less than a handful at a time.