In 2012 Topps Football, there are a lot of different autograph cards, many of which have a pretty large checklist. The majority of the autos in a box are of the prolific playmakers variety, but when you pull a big hit out of the product, its going to be pretty cool. Topps even surprised me with on card autographs for HOF players in their QB immortals set program running throughout the release. Outside of that, and of all the autos available in the set, I have been smitten with the design for the 2012 Rookie Auto Patches. I think the cards are incredibly well done – sticker or no sticker – and from some of the prices I have seen, im not the only one.

Check these out:

2012 Topps Andrew Luck Rookie Patch Auto /10

2012 Topps Robert Griffin III Rookie Patch Auto /10

2012 Topps Trent Richardson Rookie Patch Auto /10

2012 Topps Ryan Tannehill Rookie Patch Auto /10

Ever since the 2008 season, rookie patch autos have been included in Topps or Topps Chrome football, but for the most part they have been a ridiculous disaster. Topps always had enormous problems fitting the patch and sticker into their normal design, as most of the time, there just wasnt enough room to make it all look good. Last year’s was the exception, which for the first time had their own design as a box hit.

They were cool, but the card still looked relatively packed in.

This year, as a sucker for the full bleed borderless design on the top 3/4s of the card, I think Topps has done an incredible job bringing this set to the masses. Although the cards are super rare in a huge production run, they look better than I ever expected them to be. So many times, we have seen vertical patch auto cards run into major issues with structure and composition, if not only because its so difficult to make it all fit. These just find a way to keep it vertical and not looking busy.

I assume these cards will be making their way into Topps Chrome as well, which should be pretty cool to see how they turn out on that stock. Although by that time there will have been a lot of cool cards released in other sets, they should continue to stand up as bigger hits. With Topps Finest on the horizon, its going to be interesting to see what kind of surprises they continue to employ.