2008 Bowman Baseball

Info for hobby boxes only

FEATURES
NEW Bowman Chrome Autographed Prospect Cards!
1 PER HOBBY BOX!
NEW Autographed Bowman Scout Cards!
110 Topps Exclusive Bowman Chrome Prospect Cards!
110 Topps Exclusive Bowman Prospect Cards!
24 packs per box, 10 cards per pack!

In Hobby Stores: 05/14/2008

BASE CARDS - 5 Per Pack!

Veterans
200 top MLB pros.
What I like about these is that, as a collector, you are able to find your favorite players in a different action shot and design from Topps Series 1 and 2 cards.

Rookies
20 young players featured with the MLB® Rookie Card Logo.
I have always been a fan of these cards as they are just enough different from the veterans cards and rookie cards.
This year these cards can be found by the light green color just inside the black border versus the veterans black border with red just inside, and the rookies with a white border and blue.

AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING PARALLELS:
RED: HOBBY STORE EXCLUSIVE! A 1 of 1 version of the base set.
ORANGE: Numbered* to 250.
What was neat about the orange version is that as I opened the pack I noticed an orange border long before I flipped to the card with Dmitri Young. These cards are a very nice insert set and allow player collectors to go after their favorite players in a limited number to /250.

BLUE: Numbered* to 500.
Like the orange inserts, these blue ones also stand out in packs. As I broke pack after pack when I stumbled onto the baby-blue cards I knew again I was about to find an insert.

GOLD: Bowman continues to insert one gold card per pack.
These cards have always been a hit with collectors, because they are able to find inserts of their favorite players or at least able to find gold cards that they could trade with their friends.

Autographed Rookie Cards.
Although this box break did not contain one of the regular version autographs, if you look further down in the review you will find we were able to pull a chrome rookie autograph. 10 Rookies sign their base card and are numbered 221-230. 1 PER HTA BOX!
AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING PARALLELS:
RED: 1 OF 1!
ORANGE: Numbered* to 250.
BLUE: Numbered* to 500.

PROSPECT CARDS - 4 Per Pack!

Bowman Prospects - 2 Per Pack!
Non-Major League Prospects appear in their MLB uniforms along with a “First Bowman Card” logo. Numbered BP1–BP110.

2 PER PACK!
These rookie cards have long been a hit with collectors. I still remember opening my 1994 Bowmans with the Vladimir Guerrero rookie card. I really like that, over time, Topps has always made a few slight changes. For example, several years ago, Bowman added "1st Bowman Card" in one of the upper corners of the card. With the white borders and inner blue design, these cards stand out from the veterans cards that have the black border. A really neat feature included in the box was a 2008 Bowman Baseball Scouting Report that gives two lines of information on all 110 cards featured in the Bowman Rookies.

AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING PARALLELS:
RED: HOBBY STORE EXCLUSIVE! A 1 of 1 version.
ORANGE: Numbered* to 250.
BLUE: Numbered* to 500.
GOLD: Inserted 1:3 packs.

Bowman Chrome Prospects - 2 Per Pack!
All 110 Prospects with a “First Bowman Chrome Card” logo. These Bowman Chrome cards are found only in Bowman and are numbered BCP1-BCP110. 2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball will begin at BCP136. 2 PER PACK!
If you like chrome rookie cards this is the box for you as every pack contains not only 2 regular rookie cards but also 2 Bowman chrome cards. Topps did another excellent job with the Bowman chromes as the cards are again found
with their shiny finish and I have always liked the nice crisp corners that a chrome card gives collectors.

AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING REFRACTOR PARALLELS:
SUPER-FRACTOR: HOBBY STORE EXCLUSIVE! A 1 of 1 version.
RED: HOBBY STORE EXCLUSIVE! Numbered* to 5.
ORANGE: Numbered* to 25.
GOLD: Numbered* to 50.
BLUE: Numbered* to 150.
X-FRACTOR: Numbered* to 275.
REFRACTOR: Numbered* to 599.
In this box, the following refractor was pulled (see scan below). Having talked to my friends over the years, they have always liked refractors in both Topps and Bowman products so there is little doubt these cards will be a "hit" with the fans.

AUTOGRAPHED BOWMAN CHROME PROSPECTS

1 Per Hobby & HTA Box!
HOBBY STORE EXCLUSIVE! 25 prospects appear with their signatures on Chrome technology and will be numbered BCP111-BCP135!
In this particular box break Josh Bell was revealed as a Bowman Chrome autograph. As the box highlights, there is 1 Autograph Prospect or Rookie Card autograph per box. I found myself looking very closely at all the rookie cards to see who might jump out at my eyes with blue ink.

AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING PARALLELS:
SUPER-FRACTOR: A 1 of 1 version.
RED: Numbered* to 5.
ORANGE: Numbered* to 25.
GOLD: Numbered* to 50.
BLUE: Numbered* to 150.
X-FRACTOR: Numbered* to 250.
REFRACTOR: Numbered* to 599.

BOWMAN SCOUTS AUTOGRAPHS

21 Subjects
21 Bowman Baseball Scouts who have signed famous players such as A-Rod, Ryan Howard and Derek Jeter will be featured on their own cards with an autograph.

BOX LOADER

Signs of the Future
HTA STORE EXCLUSIVE! 35 top Prospects with their signatures.

PRINTING PLATES

Printing Plates
All 220 players from the base set and all 220 Bowman and Bowman Chrome Prospect Cards are featured on 4 printing plates. 1,760 ONE-OF-ONE PLATES IN ALL!

Autographed Printing Plates
4 Printing Plates of each Autographed Prospect, Rookie and Signs of the Future players. 276 AUTOGRAPHED ONE-OF-ONE

PLATES IN ALL!

My Final thoughts on this product
When I was first contacted about this great product, it reminded me of opening my first full box of Bowman back in 1994. with this year's box, I found myself waiting for the postman to make his delivery every day. When the box arrived, I could not wait to tear through the packs and find my own favorite cards: the Rookies as well as the autograph card. I found excitement in each pack as they were fun to open, with their 4 advertised Rookie cards in each pack, two regular Rookies as well as two chrome cards.

This box break revealed a great assortment of players and had few, if any, doubles (excepting a gold insert or one of the other great insert cards). This product hits a "homerun" on so many levels for collectors, from an autograph card in each box, to the regular and rookie cards, and a nice assortment of inserts including refractors. This product will have all types of collectors coming back for more boxes or packs.

Here's how I would rate this product;

Value = 5
Innovation = 4
Fun and Experience = 5
Rebuy Value = 5

I would rate this product an A from Topps as it provides a variety of cards that will appeal to many different types of collectors.

NPN Information:
NPN 2008 BOWMAN BASEBALL
P.O. BOX 765
PITTSTON,PA 18640

Limit : Only one card per envelope, mailed seperately, postmarked by August 6, 2008 and received by August 13th, 2008. No meter mail. Limited 1 card per household for 2008 Bowman Baseball. Failure to comply will result in all entries disqualified. Canadian residents will be required to send a 3x5 card and answer the following math skill question: 30 + 10 x 2 - 20 = ?

I would like to thank Clay from Topps along with Trader Retreat for giving me the opportunity to review this product.

Topps has once again produced one of my favorite products loaded with rookies.