2016 Bowman Baseball Hobby Box Review

First and foremost, I'd like to thank our sponsors at Topps for providing us with this box.

2016 Bowman Baseball focuses on rookies and prospects that have not had a card issued yet. As promised on the front of the box 2015 Bowman delivers one autograph per box. This product is for prospectors, set builders, and autograph collectors. They buy Bowman to play the lotto for a chance of hitting many of the future rookies lurking in those cases. With the crazy amount of $'s that the super refractors and other refractors bring there is no shortage of people waiting to take a gamble on the next box. For every major hit there going to be boxes that disappoint when one pulls a $1 or $2 autograph. The problem is those auto that sell for a $1 or $2 today might fetch hundreds down the road as the player get promoted to the big club.

The design of the cards are simple with a lot of action shots. The stock of the cards depends on the set it comes from.

Product Configuration:
24 packs
10 cards per pack

The base set showcases the top current players in the league. The Prospect base cards will feature 150 athletes in paper and chrome stock. Bowman has added new Shimmer Variation Refractors for 2016 in Green, Orange, and Red.

The paper base cards will feature rookies and veterans including Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Kyle Schwarber and Miguel Sano. The various parallels for paper and prospects can be found here:
http://www.topps.com/blog/2016-bowma...and-standouts/

Inserts include:
Bowman Scouts’ Top 100 - counts down the top prospects.
Rookie Recollections - celebrates the 25th anniversary of 1991 Bowman.
International Ink - honors the top global prospects to be signed during the July 2015 period.
Family Tree - celebrates father-son combinations.
Sophomore Standouts - looks back on the stacked 2015 rookie class.

Topps is offering collectors more posters and 5x7 prints for the set through their online store at http://www.topps.com/artwork/collect...-baseball.html

In addition as everyone is chasing the next hottest prospects here are some thoughts from the baseball team at Topps of their thoughts: http://www.topps.com/blog/tag/2016-bowman-baseball/

What we pulled:
Paper 104 out of 150 no dupe (69%)
Prospects 72 out of 150 no dupe (48%)
Chrome 48 out of 150 no dupe (32%)

Autograph (1)


Parallels (2) one purple #'ed to 250 and #'ed to 99

Family Tree - (1)

Turn Two - (1)


International Ink - (2)

Bowman Scouts’ Top 100 - (3)

Rookie Recollection - (1)

Sophomore Standouts - (3)


Current Retail Price (online) $65 - $78 a box

Stated odds and NPN (No Purchase Necessary)


FINAL THOUGHTS

Base - 3/5
Design - 3/5
Fun - 4.5/5
Value - 4/5
Rebuy - 4/5
Overall - 18.5/25 (80%)

Once again, I'd like to thank our wonderful sponsors at Topps for giving us the opportunity to open and review this release. For more information on all of their products, visit them today at www.topps.com

If you wish to request a few base cards or an insert card please send a SASE. Contact me and I will pull the card for you. VIP Members get preference for supporting SCF.

Don