2011 Bowman Baseball, An All About Cards Review

Last year “the” baseball card to pull was Stephen Strasburg, this year it is Bryce Harper.  Harper’s Bowman Chrome Red Auto #/5 cards have been selling at auction for between $5,000 and $6,000.  But what if you are a collector just looking for a set of cards to chase.   Are Bowman Baseball cards like an artichoke, a lot of peeling and discarding to get to a small morsel of goodness?  Not really.  For the person who purchases cards and actually plans on holding onto them, Bowman Baseball is more like a Smorgasbord, a buffet of different card types, colors and variations that will keep you coming back for seconds.

This set falls under our classification of trading cards. 2011 Bowman Baseball can be found in a variety of retail configurations and in Hobby Box form, which contain 24 – 10 card packs and features one autographed Bowman Chrome in every box.

We should also point out that last year’s Bowman was the winner of our All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award for Best Baseball Trading cards

Here is a look at some of the cards we pulled from our hobby box.

From the base sets

 Evan Longoria base card, front and back

 Andrew Romine rookie Card, front and back

 Bryce Harper prospects base, front and back

 Brandon Belt Bowman Chrome, front and back

From the inserts

 Mark Teixeira and Ubaldo Jimenez Bowman's Best

 Michael Pineda and Dee Gordon Bowman's Best Prospects

 Topps of the Class

 Bowman's Brightest

 Finest Futures

Topps 100

The hits from the box

 Ian Kinsler and Yunesky Maya International Backgrounds

 Albert Pujols and Joey Votto Gold

 Adrian Gonzalez Blue #/500

Troy Tulowitzki Orange #/250

 Jurickson Profar International Background

 Bryce Harper and Dee Gordon Bowman Chrome

 Kyle Russell Bowman Chrome #/799

 Lars Anderson Bowman Chrome Auto #/500

Rick Hague Blue Bowman Chrome Auto #/ 150

Overall Look

Bowman has always had a straightforward design.  Chrome cards are sharp and inserts are where most of the design elements come into play.

Quality and Variety of Players and Subsets.

The best of the MLB and a variety of primed prospects and young hopefuls make for a good mix.

Do the hits hold up?

For the most part you are looking for autographs in a rainbow variety of numbered colors.  Hitting a Bryce is like hitting the lottery if you are in the business of flipping your cards.   For collectors with patience, in a few years you might have an as of yet undiscovered gem if you hold onto your cards.

Will you want to collect them all? 

Some might not consider this a set to build, but it is a nice group of cards to chase.

Rating

 4 1/2 out of 5

2011 Bowman Baseball delivers again, working on a bunch of different levels for a wide variety of card collectors.


Review box provided by Topps