Bowman Baseball is consistent and familiar. Very little changes from year to
year. For 2012 Bowman Baseball,
Bryce Harper returns as the face of the box along with newcomer Garrit
Cole. While Harper cards are still
commanding high prices on the secondary market, it's Yu Darvish who steals the show with the top prices being paid for this release of Bowman cards. If Bowman has been a part of your collection in the past, you will want to get in on this year’s set
too. If you are new to Bowman, you
will find this a nice set to put together.
Bowman Baseball falls under our classification of trading cards.
2012 Bowman Baseball can be found in a variety of retail and hobby
configurations. This review is
based on a hobby box which contains 24 – 10 card packs and features one
autographed Bowman Chrome in every box.
Here is a look at some of the cards we pulled.
Base Set
Yu Darvish, front and back
Jose Bautista, Robinson Cano, Chipper Jones
Buster Posey, Albert Pujols, Ichiro
Justin Verlander, Dustin Ackley, David Ortiz
David Wright, Ryan Braun, David Price
Evan Longoria, Prince Fielder, Joe Mauer
Prospects - 1st Bowman Card
Gerrit Cole, front and back
Danny Hultzen, Tyler Gagnon, Francisco Lindor
Chrome Prospects
Gerrit Cole, Julio Rodriguez, Francisco Lindor
Rookie Davis, Michael Brady, Josh Bell
Bowman's Best
Justin Verlander, Matt Moore
Bowman's Best Prospects
Rymer Liriano, Joe Panik
Parallels
International
Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Johnson, Emilio King
Gold
Jose Reyes, Cliff Lee, Matt Kemp
Todd Helton, Mark Trumbo, Derek Jeter
Brad Peacock, Ian Kinsler, Adrian Gonzalez
Blue #/500
Ivan Nova, Cliff Lee
Orange #/250
Greg Billo
Blue Chrome #/250
Tyler Gagnon
Silver Ice
Mike Moustakas
Chrome Prospect Autograph
Cheslor Cuthbert
Overall Look
Bowman has always had a straightforward design. Not much has
change this year. The black border
on the base cards from last year has been replaced with a white border this
year. Chrome cards are sharp and
inserts are where most of the design elements come into play. The Ice cards,
silver and red, are standouts. There are fewer inserts this year and a wider
variety of hits which all look great.
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?
In additional to rainbow hunting, the variety of different
hits makes this year’s Bowman standout.
If you happen to pull one of the 10 Golden Contracts that are good for a
Yu Darvish Autographed Baseball and entry into a drawing for the grand prize of
$500 and your own 2013 Bowman Baseball Card, I will look at you with envy and
distain. You can keep the ball and
the money; I just want to be on that card.
Will you want to collect them all?
This is a nice sized set to build with the option of
expansion into the different colors.
Rating
4 1/2 out of 5
2012 Bowman Baseball delivers again, this time with a wider
variety of hits to pull. It is a
consistent favorite of card collectors.
Review box provided by Topps
Review box provided by Topps