Release Date: May 30, 2012
Price Point: Around $130 Per Box at Dave and Adam’s Card World
Product Loadout: 5 Cards Per Pack; 5 Packs Per Box, 12 Boxes Per Case
Hit Ratios: Each pack contains 1 autograph or autograph relic, 2 Veteran base cards, and 2 Bowman Football rookie base cards. 5 autographs or autograph/relics per box.
Product Information:
- 200 Card Base Set (1-200)
- 2 short-printed base cards
- 50 short-printed rookie variations
- Inside the Numbers (40 Cards)
- Combine Competition (15 Cards)
- Accolades (10 cards)
- All-American Football Stars (16 cards)
Parallels/Autograph/Game Used:
- Gold Rookie Card parallel
- Purple Rookie Card parallel
- Silver Rookie Card parallel (#’d to 99)
- Green Rookie Card parallel (#’d to 25)
- Red Rookie Card parallel (1/1, Hobby only)
- Printing Plates (1/1, Hobby only)
- Rookie Autographs (up to 60 cards, Hobby only)
- Rookie Red Ink Autographs (#’d to 15)
- Rookie Refractor Helmet Autographs (42 cards)
- Rookie Refractor Helmet Red Ink Autographs (#’d to 15)
- Dual Autographs (8 cards, #’d to 25)
- Dual Autograph Gold parallel (#’d to 5, Hobby only)
- Triple Autographs (4 cards, #’d to 25)
- Triple Autograph Gold parallel (#’d to 5, Hobby only)
- Inside the Numbers Autographed Relics (20 cards)
- Inside the Numbers Autographed Jumbo Relics (#’d to 5)
- Inside the Numbers Autographed Patches (#’d to 10, Hobby only)
- Inside the Numbers Autographed Jumbo Patches (1/1)
- Accolades Autographs
- All-American Football Stars Autos (12 cards)
- Astro Turf Bowl Autographs (3 cards)
Box Contents:
- 21 total cards
- 7/100 base cards (Shonn Greene, Mario Williams, Marques Colston, Larry Fitzgerald, Patrick Willis, Philip Rivers and James Starks)
- 6/100 rookie cards (Luke Kuechly, Michael Brockers, Jacory Harris, T.Y. Hilton, Quinton Coples and Andrew Luck)
- 1 Inside the Numbers (Roddy White)
- 1 Scouting Combine (Morris Claiborne/Patrick Peterson)
- 3 Rookie Autographs (Coby Fleener, Mark Barron Redemption and Chandler Harnish)
- 2 Rookie Refractor Helmet Autographs (Jermaine Kearse and LaMichael James)
- 1 Astro Turf Bowl Autograph (Bo Levi Mitchell)
After the NFL lockout last year, Topps has decided that it wanted to be the first NFL-branded player to the table with 2012 Bowman Signature and its retail equivalent: 2012 Bowman. The hobby version of the product features one autograph per box, and a price that started at $180 a box (or about $40 per pack) and has tumbled to $130.
What I Liked: The base veteran cards don’t look bad at all although with a hit-per-pack being the basis, it seems like the base set is pretty much relegated to retail markets only (where there’s extremely limited autograph potential). The refractor helmet autographs look extremely nice, especially with the fact that they’re on card.
Overall Thoughts: Topps needs to go back to the drawing board with Bowman and come out with a solid, compelling set that happens to have great design as well. This isn’t it. It wouldn’t surprise me to see this product drop under $80 a box by the end of 2012, if not sooner. Sorry, Topps. I know you can do better than this.
Pizazz: 2/5
Design: 2/5
Total Score: 2/5
