In today’s market, things happen quickly. Because of eBay and the sheer amount of every product opened within the first few weeks of release, the big hits in a set tend to show up relatively quickly. With 2012 National Treasures, ridiculous team logo patches are not as much of a premium because Panini has rigged the deck by having the players wear a ton of jerseys to cut up over the course of the year. This is the beauty of event used or player worn relics instead of game used, as you can technically have a logo patch in almost every card. Most people are still unaware of this situation, which means they are more likely to continue assigning value to these examples.

Here are the biggest ones so far:

2012 National Treasures Andrew Luck NFL Gear Auto Shield 1/1

2012 National Treasures Robert Griffin III Auto NFL Logo Colossal 1/1

2012 National Treasures Andrew Luck / Trent Richardson Dual Shield 1/1

As a result of this practice, each rookie also has 4-5 NFL shield logos in the product. However, arguably the two biggest cards in the product are still at large. RGIII, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson have had enormous cards pulled and listed, but the 1/1 logo shield autos on the base patch auto have not yet come to eBay or a message board as far as I know. Hey, you could always buy this ridiculously stupid and hideous one in the mean time, right?

The product’s available cases have been split between those people that are holding them to sell in the future, and those that will either sell them or open them eventually. Therefore, there is a huge possibility that one if not both of the cards may never hit the market. This has happened before, as the Superfractor auto of Evan Longoria in baseball has almost become a Loch Ness monster of sorts. Many people have claimed to have seen it, but no one can provide irrefutable evidence.

Im sure that it is in the best interest of the company to keep the cards in the product, as box prices for 2012 NT have reached an all time high. If the 2012 rookie class has another tremendous year on the field, the boxes will continue to be on the rise. The issue is that no one really knows how much more there is to open. Many accusations of distributors hoarding boxes and claiming they are “out” have started to fly around, as is customary for products like this. On top of that, more and more collectors are being priced out of opening a box as the case prices break through the value ceiling.

I have to believe that we will eventually see these hits surface, but I stand by the fact that the Andrew Luck Superfractor, which successfully sold at 16.5K will hold its spot as the chase card of the year when all is said and done. That’s not saying that the build up around the search for this card could eventually push someone to make a bigger impulse purchase. Who knows, its all about the time it takes.