Release Date: May 9, 2012
Price Point: $4 per pack or $120 per box at DCS Sports Cards, HTA boxes going for $250+ online
Product Loadout: 10 cards per pack, 24 packs per box, 12 boxes per case. 32 cards per HTA back, 12 packs per box, 8 boxes per case.
Hit Ratios: Each box will contain one autograph. Each HTA box will contain three autographs.
Product Information:
- 220 card base set (1-220)
- 110 card prospect set (BP1-BP110)
- Bowman’s Best (50 cards, 1:6 packs)
Parallels/Autograph/Game Used:
- International parallels (1:8 packs)
- Gold parallel (1:pack)
- Blue parallel (#’d to 500)
- Orange parallel (#’d to 250)
- Red parallel (1/1, hobby only)
- Silver Ice parallel (1:24 packs)
- Red Ice parallel (#’d to 25, hobby only)
- Bowman Chrome Prospects (2:pack)
- Bowman Chrome Refractor (#’d to 500)
- Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor (#’d to 250)
- Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor (#’d to 50)
- Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor (#’d to 25)
- Bowman Chrome Red Refractor (#’d to 5, hobby only)
- Bowman Chrome Superfractor (1/1, hobby only)
- Bowman Chrome Blue Wave (redemption, hobby only)
- Bowman Chrome Red Wave (#’d to 25)
- Bowman Chrome Blue Wave Prospect Autographs (#’d to 50)
- Bowman’s Best Die-Cut Refractor (#’d to 99)
- Bowman’s Best Die-Cut X-Fractor (#’d to 25)
- Bowman’s Best Die-Cut Atomic Refractor (1/1, hobby only)
- Printing Plates (1/1, hobby only)
- AFLAC High School All-American Autographs (11 cards, #’d to 240 or less, hobby only)
- Bowman Black (25 cards, #’d to 25)
- Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs (30 cards, hobby only)
- Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Prospect Autographs (#’d to 150)
- Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor Prospect Autographs (#’d to 50)
- Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor Prospect Autographs (#’d to 25)
- Bowman Chrome Purple Refractor Prospect Autographs (#’d to 10, HTA only)
- Bowman Chrome Red Refractor Prospect Autographs (#’d to 5)
- Bowman Chrome Super-fractor Prospect Autographs (1/1)
- Bowman Chrome Printing Plate Prospect Autographs (1/1, HTA only)
- Bowman Chrome Autographed Rookie Cards (30 cards, hobby only)
- Bowman Chrome Refractor Autographed Rookie Cards (#’d to 500)
- Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Autographed Rookie Cards (#’d to 250)
- Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor Autographed Rookie Cards (#’d to 50)
- Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor Autographed Rookie Cards (#’d to 25)
- Bowman Chrome Red Refractor Autographed Rookie Cards (#’d to 5)
- Bowman Chrome Super-Fractor Autographed Rookie Cards (1/1)
- Bowman Chrome Printing Plate Autographed Rookie Cards (1/1, HTA only)
- Bowman Lucky Redemptions (3 cards, #’d to 100)
- Bowman Debut Golden Contract (#’d to 10)
Box Contents
- 240 total cards
- 114/220 base cards, 0 doubles
- 48/110 prospect cards, 0 doubles
- 42/110 Chrome prospect cards, 0 doubles
- 24 Gold Parallels (Including Albert Pujols, Matt Moore, James Darnell and Taylor Green)
- 3 Bowman International Parallels (Keith Couch, Adam Jones and Aramis Ramirez)
- 2 Bowman’s Best (Miguel Cabrera and Jose Bautista)
- 2 Bowman’s Best Prospects (Anthony Gose and Gerrit Cole)
- 1 Bowman Blue (Anthony Fernandez 138/500)
- 1 Bowman Chrome Refractor (Nick Kingham 367/500)
- 1 Silver Ice (Eric Surkamp)
- 1 Red Ice (Dillon Howard 10/25)
- 1 Bowman Prospect Autograph (Nick Delmonico)
My opinion of Bowman has been well known over the past years, and I still fully believe that Bowman needs to go from three sets to two. That said, it’s still one of the baseline prospect sets for people to collect, and cards from this set are still considered the rookie card to collect, especially in the Chrome version. Topps upped the ante a bit this year by adding cards of Bryce Harper and Yu Darvish. With these and other added items to the set, prices have been high since before Bowman launched and even the ‘sale’ prices currently are around where the launch prices were.
What I liked: The design in 2012 Bowman is much improved over the past five years or so, with a curved border which really makes the cards stand out. The card backs are also different shades to make the prospects easily sorted out from the other cards. I also really liked how the Silver and Red Ice cards look. Another thing which was really neat were the wrapper redemption Blue and Red Wave cards, although I do think Topps could have done a better job with how the redemption was handled to keep them from running out within a week of launch.
What I didn’t: I still don’t like how Bowman has almost nothing to bring in the price that it commands. I really think combining the three sets and having two autographs per box would go a long way towards making Bowman relevant again, as there really isn’t anything that stands out to me. Getting one autograph and a small number of parallels in a box just doesn’t do it for me. Granted, I do seem to be in a minority here. I also miss the border differentiation between the prospects and the base cards, as they can be hard to tell apart from the front if you’re not paying attention.
Overall Opinion: Bowman is Bowman. There’s really not anything else that I can say about it. You know what you’re going to get, and in 2012 you’re going to pay a lot for it. I’m not sure that Bryce and Yu Darvish are enough to keep these prices this high, but then again, prices of 2010 Bowman are still high two years later, so what do I know?
Collation: 4/5
Pizazz: 3/5
Design: 3/5
Total Score: 3/5 (rounded down)
Pizazz: 3/5
Design: 3/5
Total Score: 3/5 (rounded down)
