Bowman Chrome...the only product worth ripping and holding?

[ndhl83]

Hello!
I am slowly moving into baseball cards after getting my toes wet last year with graded singles. I am a "football only" guy for the last 20 years and the rookie card/market in general there is very "one and done", i.e. you mostly have that season to get max value for pulls, unless you manage to hang on to one of the (future) greats. It's really "SB or bust" for QBs and "HoF or bust" for other skill players, otherwise you are better off having sold their rookie year or maybe their breakout (if they have one).

In terms of baseball cards and prospects/rookies: Bowman Chrome really intrigue me. Aside from the rookie cards that release year, you're getting some literal first cards of the prospects who will become the next star rookies, and then possibly star players.I would never consider opening a case of football, grading a lot of rookie cards (refractors, low numbered, or autos, plus base of higher ranked prospects) and waiting to see what actually hits in 1-3 years...that would be financial suicide most years even with a LOADED rookie class...but it seems like "not a bad idea" in Baseball IF you are fine with floating some of the case cost until those returns come back.

In baseball...it seems like that idea can have merit IF you have at least 1-2 guys hit from that year, and you have multiples of them, and they're already graded because you sent them in bulk, early, while the market price on their 10's was low or not established.So aside from selling some hits from a case to recoup some of that cost, Bowman Chrome seems like a product worth buying every year, cracking, grading, and holding a handful of prospects and RCs...especially the low'd/auto stuff.

Am I crazy? This seems like it would only work in the baseball card market, even before the explosion of the hobby in the last 18-24 months...maybe hockey, too, but I don't think they do prospect cards in hockey that are taken seriously. Baseball cards definitely have the longest history and most established "norms" and I'd love some insight from any Bowman Chrome case breakers on here, whether you have found merit in what I'm saying or if I am way off base.If you don't mind sharing some insight I would love to hear it! Cheers!

[steve_morgan]

Bowman Chrome is honestly the only baseball product I buy. I hold basically all of the bowman firsts and autos of position players. You can run into some big money.

[CardboardCurrency]

Post-2008 I'd say 80% of my baseball collection is Bowman Chrome for the prospect reasons you stated. But the print runs are lower only 499 base refractors compared to the other Topps brands, the design is usually more eye appealing as well. But prospect chasing has the same if not greater risk than QB chasing. Drafted QBs are usually drafted by teams that are rebuilding so they chances of them starting right away is much greater due to that and injury risk. Chasing high baseball draft picks that may never make it out the minors is a story every baseball collector can tell. To that point i buy mostly only singles. I rip a few Blasters a year I find at Wal-Mart while shopping or treat myself to a Hobby Box from Dave and Adams once a year but mostly I buy singles of prospects after only following their progress for a few years and only when I sense they're about to get a call up I buy a few. There's only a handful of players where right away I went immediately all-in on their first Bowman Chrome releases. There is risk. It's still gambling to some extent.

[mrrosado]

@ndhl83 I never buy bowman chrome. I find it too expensive. I also go after Yankees, Pat Neshek and autos so.....that strategy does not work for me. I bought a regular bowman box once and pulled a nice Fernando Tatis, Jr. 1st bowman which I sold for $40. So I was still down on the cost of my box but it was worth it for me for the fun of breaking the box with my bro-in-law.