If you havent heard lately, Leaf is trying to make a splash in pre-draft football products. Its one of those things that has actually worked out well for them in most cases, especially when you consider that they are not allowed to use any college affiliation or uniforms in the product. The Metal cards look great, something furthered by a collector friendly box format, all of which have led to pretty nice prices. Although the sales of the base metal autos havent come close to the base auto SPs out of NCAA branded UD 2011 Football, its impressive how much the big names have gotten.

Check out what I mean:

Nick Fairley Superfractor Auto RC 1/1

Mark Ingram Superfractor Auto RC 1/1

Daniel Thomas Superfractor Auto RC 1/1

Cam Newton Blue Refractor Auto RC 2/25

Cam Newton Red Refractor Auto RC /5

Now, Leaf is trying again with what they are calling ULTIMATE, and from the preliminary shots of it, I dont think it looks half as good as the first set does. They are thinking outside of the normal pre-premiere products with low numbered hard signed cards, but overall, the design of the base autos and the insert autos leave a lot to be desired.

A Cam Newton has already been posted with a huge Buy it now, but I dont think that these cards will have the same success that the original did for one major reason. Prestige will be hitting shelves with NFL branding shortly, and once that happens, its not going to be pretty. The bottom line is that NFL stuff ALWAYS sells better, regardless if Panini cant design their way out of a paper bag.

I can easily see that there will be good prices out of the box for this stuff, just be cautious in paying ridiculous prices now, when the cards will be available for much less later on once the regular product calendar is released.