2004 Bowman Draft Picks baseball – The best rookie product to get, year after year – hands down. This product boasts certified autograph rookie cards from up and coming draft picks such as Matt Bush, Homer Bailey, Thomas Diamond and Philip Hughes, among others. In addition, look for Refractor, Xfractor and Gold Refractor parallels of all cards, including autographs. Topps also went the extra mile to secure an agreement with the AFLAC High-School baseball program to include redemptions for team sets of next years draft picks that participated in the program. These are packaged approximately one per hobby box, with Refractor, Xfractor and Gold Refractor parallels randomly inserted, as well. Some of the key rookie cards in this years offering include Josh Fields, Mitch Einertson, Matt Tuisosopo and Blake DeWitt. Each eight-card hobby pack contains two chrome parallels, one gold parallel and five base Bowman rookie cards and retails for $2.99.
2004-05 Bowman Signature Basketball – This is by far the highest price-point of any Topps basketball product. Every sealed pack is guaranteed to contain an encased-uncirculated autographed rookie card (may not may not contain a jersey swatch) or an autographed superstar card, as well as five base cards, which may be serial-numbered. The certified autograph checklist includes Emeka Okafor, Shaquille O’Neal, Jermaine O’Neal, Luol Deng, Yuta Tabuse, Shaun Livingston and Al Jefferson, just to name a few. There is also an un-autographed game-jersey card of rookie sensation Dwight Howard, serial-numbered to 1,000. In addition to all of the above, Topps has also included a 1/1 parallel for each card including various levels of Printing Plates, some of which are autographed. A pack of Bowman Signature retails for $29.99.
2004 Bowman Chrome Football – A mainstay since the products inception back in 1999, each sealed hobby box contains one certified rookie autograph on average. Look for certified autographs from Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, just to name a few. There are also the customary Refractor, Xfractor and Gold Refractor parallels, all serial-numbered. Every hobby box contains an encased-uncirculated “Red” refractor parallel as well as a redemption card good for one randomly selected exclusive ThePit.com rookie card. Not a bad deal for $2.99 per pack – if you ask me.
2005 Topps Baseball – Still the grandfather of baseball products, Topps baseball has been the center of hobby attention for close to 55 years. Fueled, once again, by the gold-foil parallels (serial-numbered to 2,005), this continues to be the product that collectors from all ages love to rip. You can find them at your local drug store or convenient store and always retail for $1.99 per pack. There are various game-used memorabilia programs and certified autographs including a subset of 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers including Duke Snider and Johnny Podres.
