I have been a big fan of the way Topps Platinum’s rookie patch autos have turned out this year. After the original product solicitation left them off, it was truly an awesome surprise to see how the cards turned out.

The first reaction any longtime collector should have had was that the swatch window was cut to mirror the shape of the NFL shield. Well, that feeling would be correct, as there are 1/1 red refractor parallels that have exactly that. Amazingly, the 1/1 Red Refractor Shield Auto of Cam Newton is ending today, and being the first shield auto of the year, I am surprised that it is still as low as it is. If you look at the auction for the 1/1 non auto superfractor, you would expect this to be a lot higher.

These cards are really some of the best of the year so far, as they just look well designed and well executed. Although the next five sets from both Topps and Panini will have shield autos, some hard signed, these have already surpassed most of the Panini examples sheer design of the card. They may be differently valued because these are sticker autos, but the way the cards are done have grown on me rapidly since release. They have also sold pretty well, something that should be expected.

Here are some of the ones that have popped up so far:

Mark Ingram 1/1 Red Refractor NFL Shield Auto

Ryan Mallett 1/1 Red Refractor NFL Shield Auto

Stevan Ridley 1/1 Red Refractor NFL Shield Auto

With how dominating player collectors and team collectors tend to be in football, I see exactly why these cards are chased, even for lesser players. Bottom line is that the shield autos are always at the top of the mountain in terms of value, but with so many examples, that may not be the case in the future. At least with these, they look great enough to live up to the mystique of what a shield auto should be, sticker or no sticker.