I posted earlier this year in regards to the cool cards that Topps was giving away as prizes for the Game Time promotion that took place during the season for 2012. The code cards were available in jumbo, retail, and hobby settings for their main football set, and the fantasy element to the game was definitely worth entering the code cards instead of selling them. I was lucky enough to pull Adrian Peterson and Michael Vick from my cards entered, and those arrived a while ago. They definitely turned out awesome.

Today, I got a very unexpected package from Topps, which contained my autographed Doug Martin refractor auto from this set, which I won for achieving ninth place in the rankings during one of the weeks of the season. I wasnt the only person to get their autographed cards in the mail this week, as they have been starting to show up on eBay.

2012 Game Time Robert Griffin III Auto Refractor 23/25

2012 Game Time Andrew Luck Auto Refractor 3/25

2012 Game Time Ryan Tannehill Auto Refractor 15/25

2012 Game Time Brandon Weeden Auto Refractor 4/25

Although I believe many of the initial sellers are overvaluing the cards in their asking price, they should be hot commodities for the player collectors of these top rookies. Because there are only 25 copies for each player, its a pretty rare card without a doubt. The question is, how much of a market will there be for these? They arent really part of any set.

I put my Doug Martin up on eBay as soon as I could, as no other autos of his had been posted as of the beginning of my auction. Hopefully I get a nice amount of cash for it.

Bottom line, any time you get something for free that includes cards like this promotion or in the Panini pack giveaways, I will be a fan. Each of these promotions has churned out some awesome cards that cannot be found any other place. There is no such thing as a free lunch, but Ill tell you, it feels good to get a card when you have nothing invested in it. Many of the players in this promotion turned out to be quite valuable as the year moved on, and I expect that these cards should make up for some of those box breaks that might not have turned out so well.