When it came to Chrome in previous years, Topps has always let the sell sheet speak for itself. The surprises always came once the product hit the shelves. Not so much for this year, as they have wisely used their twitter account to build unprecedented excitement over a product that has always been a collector favorite.

Over the last few weeks, we have seen a handful of previews of autographed cards from guys like Ingram, Mallett, Ponder, Green and company, but one rookie was noticeably absent. Cam Newton, one of the many rookies who is having a surprisingly great start to the season, is the top valued player in the class. Yesterday, we got to see that the wait was worth it.

Not only are all of his cards hard signed, but we are seeing that for the first time, we are getting something that has never been offered before – Red Refractor autos. Topps Chrome has always had a parallel structure that was different than the structure that made Bowman Chrome into the titan it is every year in baseball. This year, we may get what I have been calling for year after year, consistency with what made Bowman Chrome so popular.

Additionally, Topps redid the dual and triple autos this year, and I must say they look awesome. Although I get that it would have been close to impossible to get the time to get all the autos on card, they did amazing with what they had to work with. I know this is nitpicky, but I even like the font they used on the duals. Its crazy how much something like that can add to my personal opinion of a card.

I also missed that Topps had previewed an example of a chrome version of the patch autos they had released in 2011 Topps, and even those look pretty good. The auto sticker looks a little out of place, but these cards were a nice addition in regular Topps and they should be nice again in Chrome. Maybe we will get one per box again? Add more box content that collectors have called for? Who knows.

We also are getting a preview of the first (and probably most sought after) Superfractor auto, and I think that after seeing what they are looking like with the hard signed autos, bidding will go crazy go nuts over these. Because they arent stickers anymore, the value has that much more potential. Just by ditching the labels, Topps has made Chrome a more valuable set. Baseball has had value for years in a way that Chrome Football never did. I think on card autographs may close the gap a little.

Here are the previews: