Why, you ask?
Because the much-anticipated release of Bowman baseball occurs every May. Need I say more?
(OK, don’t answer that).
The new 2006 Bowman baseball, as per usual, is choc-full of first-year player cards (formerly known as rookie cards) that include the likes of Alex Gordon, Max Ramirez and Craig Hansen, who is a true rookie card under the new Rookie Card definition concocted by Major League Baseball.
What’s different with 2006 Bowman as compared to all other Bowman baseball releases before it is the inclusion of two exclusive Bowman Chrome first-year cards per pack. What this amounts to is essentially a sister product to Bowman Chrome and Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects as all three should be tied together as one continuous product.
Another significant change is the fact that all first-year player cards are considered inserts and are part of a sub-set consisting solely of these first-year player cards.
Confused yet?
It’s really not all too difficult, I promise.
What’s not different are the multiple levels of refractor and xfractor parallels, including the newly minted “Orange” refractors, which are serial-numbered to just 25 copies per player. This initiative has taken prospecting to a whole new level and we’re thankful for the challenge Topps has provided us with.
This year, Topps has decided to include autographed rookie cards as part of its base Bowman brand. And while some of these themed rookie cards have had what were believed to be autographed rookie cards in products released last year and before (e.g., Ryan Zimmerman, Scott Olsen, etc.), there are rookie cards of players who have not had certified autographs in years past, but have had rookie cards (e.g., Ian Kinsler, Joel Zumaya, etc.) This helps to put an interesting twist on the concept and considering that the Kinslers and Zumayas of the world are now featured on their first certified autograph card, rookie or not, it’s certain to generate some hobby buzz, which it has.
Additionally, if you’re lucky you might pull certified autographed rookie cards from ultra-popular Craig Hansen or Kenji Jojhima. Each card fetches big money on “the Bay.”
Topps also decided to streamline the parallel process a bit by toning down the ultra-thick and generally overlooked gold parallels and replaced them with a gold parallel of the same card stock as the base cards. Also included are blue parallels (#’d to 500) and White parallels (#’d to 120).
And for you high-rollers, there are printing-plates, one of one red Bowman parallels and Superfractors to wet your palate.
We were fortunate enough to rip through two hobby boxes and pulled two very nice autographs in Ryan Zimmerman and Cameron Maybin. Other autographs include Hansen, Kinsler, Reggie Abercrombie, Zumaya and Darrell Rasner, among others.
The 2006 Bowman baseball product retails for $2.99 per hobby pack and $6.99 per hobby jumbo pack. If you don’t have a hobby store near you the product is slowly showing up on retail store shelves in places like Target and K-Mart.
Whether you are a prospector, a player collector or just a big fan of the Bowman brand, the 2006 Bowman baseball set should keep your seat warm until later this summer when the base Bowman Chrome product is released.
Good luck with yours.
