Card of the Day: Kevin Young 1992 Bowman #155

Card of the Day: Ken Phelps 1990 Bowman #462

Card of the Day: Jorge Soler 2015 Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor Auto

Card of the Day: Luol Deng 2004-05 Bowman Signature Gold #77

2021 Bowman Platinum Baseball Mega Box Break & Review

Collector Type: Rookie/Prospect/Autograph

Shiny foil! Bowman Platinum is back as a Walmart exclusive. A Mega box contains (20) packs and guarantees (2) autographs. Blasters are the only place to find the Ice Foil parallels.

The base set consists of (200) cards. (100) veterans/rookies and (100) top prospects. Parallels include Ice Foil (Blaster), Foilboard #’ed/299, Aqua Ice Foilboard #’ed/250, Pink #’ed/199, Blue #’ed/150, Green #’ed/99, Green Icy Foil #’ed/99, Gold #’ed/50, Orange #’ed/25, Red #’ed/10, and Foilfractor #’ed 1/1.

Both veterans/rookies and top prospects have photo variations. CMP codes continue to be the easiest way to identify them. Base veterans/rookies have a CMP code that ends in #631. Base top prospects have a CMP code that ends in #644. Photo variations for both end in #678. So, if you pull a card that has a CMP code that ends in #678 you’ve got a photo variation.

Veterans/Rookies with Photo Variations:

• Jo Adell #5
• Ronald Acuña Jr. #9
• Joey Bart #14
• Fernando Tatis Jr. #55
• Mike Trout #61

Top prospects with Photo Variations:

• Heston Kjerstad #40
• Nick Gonzales #87
• Austin Martin #90
• Austin Hendrick #91
• Spencer Torkelson #92

Autographs include Top Prospect Autographs, Meteoric Autographs, Platinum Die-Cuts Autographs, Platinum Etchings Autographs, Precious Elements Autographs, and Renowned Rookies Autographs.

Autograph relics include Platinum Patches Autographs, Platinum Pedigree Autographs, and Platinum Pieces Autographs.

Relics include Platinum Patches and Platinum Pedigree.

Inserts include Meteoric, Platinum Die-Cuts, Platinum Etchings, Precious Elements, and Renowned Rookies.

Fun box to break. Be very careful when flipping through your cards. My two autographs were easily stuck to other cards. I almost missed one of them.

Checklist

Here is what I pulled:

Autos:

• Yolbert Sanchez Top Prospect Auto
• Jordan Diaz Top Prospect Auto

Parallels:

• Xander Bogaerts Foilboard #’ed/299
• Max Kepler Gold #’ed/50

Inserts:

• Max Meyer Meteoric
• Luis Patino RC Meteoric
• Garrett Mitchell Precious Elements
• Robert Hassell Precious Elements
• Marco Luciano Precious Elements
• Austin Hendrick Precious Elements
• Clarke Schmidt RC Renowned Rookies
• Nick Madrigal RC Renowned Rookies
• Luis Garcia RC Renowned Rookies
• Jarred Kelenic RC Renowned Rookies

Card of the Day: Dave “Boo” Ferriss 1949 Bowman #211

White Sox ’21 Bowman Sterling Auto Contest Winner Announced

Congrats to Jon Terry on being the lucky winner of the Yolbert Sanchez 2021 Bowman Sterling Prospect Wave Refractor Auto #’ed/125. Once Jon Terry sends me his mailing address, I will ship this card ASAP. Thanks!

White Sox ’21 Bowman Sterling Auto Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a Yolbert Sanchez 2021 Bowman Sterling Prospect Wave Refractor Auto #’ed/125. Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, October 22, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• U.S. residents only.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

2021 Bowman Sterling Baseball Hobby Box Break & Review

Collector Type: Autograph/Rookie/Prospect

I remember when Bowman Sterling made it’s hobby debut back in 2004. Guys like Matt Bush, Huston Street, and Matt Tuiasosopo were all the rage. I can’t believe it has been 17 years already.

Bowman Sterling is and has always been a very high-end product. This hobby-exclusive brand comes with (5) mini-boxes. Each containing (1) pack with an autograph.

The base set consists of (101) cards. (50) Prospects and (51) Rookies. Parallels include Refractor #’ed/199, Speckle #’ed/99, Magenta #’ed/75, Gold #’ed/50, Blue #’ed/25, Black Atomic #’ed/10, Red #’ed/5, SuperFractor #’ed 1/1, and Printing Plates #’ed 1/1.

Although Short Prints aren’t something you usually see in high-end products such as this, there is one to watch out for. Jarred Kelenic of the Mariners has a Prospect card #BSP-41, and a Rookie #BSR-105. His Rookie is a difficult card to pull even though it looks just like a base card. He was called up right before the yearly Rookie Card cutoff date, and his rookies have popped-up sporadically in products.

Autographs include Prospect Autographs, Rookie Autographs, Sterling Recollection Autographs, Sterling Tender Autographs, Dual Refractor Autographs, and Triple Refractor Autographs.

Sterling Recollections is the only insert.

I thoroughly enjoy the design of this year’s set. That smokey-painted team logo really catches the eye. On-card autographs are an additional plus.

If you’re looking for veteran content, Sterling Recollections is the place for that.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos:

• Kevin Alcantara Prospect Speckle Refractor Auto #’ed/99
• Yolbert Sanchez Prospect Wave Refractor Auto #’ed/125
• Alexander Ramirez Prospect Refractor Auto #’ed/150
• Bobby Miller Prospect Auto Redemption
• Dillon Dingler Prospect Auto

Parallels:

• Kristian Robinson Prospect Magenta Refractor #’ed/75
• Alejandro Kirk RC Refractor #’ed/199

Base:

• Nate Pearson RC #60
• Brailyn Marquez RC #100
• Nick Madrigal RC #88
• Anderson Tejeda RC #57
• Cristian Pache RC #62
• (2) Jesus Sanchez RC #53
• (2) Evan White RC #77
• Alejandro Kirk RC #68
• Akil Baddoo RC #93
• Bobby Dalbec RC #98
• Spencer Howard RC #97
• Ryan Mountcastle RC #61
• Austin Hendrick Prospect #43
• Hunter Greene Prospect #35
• Robert Hassell Prospect #12
• Nick Gonzales Prospect #16
• Matthew Allan Prospect #46
• Drew Waters Prospect #22
• MacKenzie Gore Prospect #10
• Austin Martin Prospect #50
• Adley Rutschman Prospect #3

2021 Bowman Chrome Baseball Hobby Box Break & Review

Collector Type: Autograph/Rookie/Prospect

The second major prospecting set has been released. Regular Bowman came out a few months ago, and Bowman Draft will come out later this year.

Who’s going to be the next Mike Trout? Ohtani? Harper? Lots of people would like to tell you what they think. In the end nobody really knows. Don’t let anyone attempt to push you into buying a specific player. Collect what you enjoy.

You will find that 2021 Bowman Chrome comes in three different formats. A hobby box comes with (2) autographs, HTA Choice has (3) autographs, and the new LITE doesn’t guarantee any autographs. The LITE version is the only place to find the B&W Mini-Diamond parallels.

(100) cards make up the base Bowman Chrome set. This is where you’ll find veterans and 2021 rookies. Parallels include Refractor #’ed/499, Fuchsia/Pink #’ed/299, Purple #’ed/250, Blue #’ed/150, Green #’ed/99, Yellow #’ed/75, Gold #’ed/50, Orange #’ed/25, Red #’ed/5, and SuperFractor #’ed 1/1.

Due to a printing error, the Yellow #’ed/75 parallels came out orange. How did this happen? Nobody knows. That means there are (100) Orange parallels. You can still distinguish them apart from the serial numbering.

(15) of the rookies have Photo Variations. Checking the CMP codes is the easiest way to identify them.

• Base – #598
• Photo Variation – #622

An additional (100) cards make up the Prospect base set. Parallels include B&W Mini-Diamond (1:2 LITE), Shimmer (1:12 packs), Refractor #’ed/499, Speckle #’ed/299, Purple #’ed/250, Purple Shimmer #’ed/250, Fuchsia/Pink #’ed/199, Fuchsia/Pink Shimmer #’ed/199, Blue #’ed/150, Aqua #’ed/125, Green #’ed/99, Green Shimmer #’ed/99, Yellow #’ed/75, Gold #’ed/50, Gold Shimmer #’ed/50, Orange #’ed/25, Orange Shimmer #’ed/25, Red #’ed/5, Red Shimmer #’ed/5, Black Shimmer #’ed 1/1, and SuperFractor #’ed 1/1.

Autographs include Chrome Prospect Autographs, Chrome Rookie Autographs, Base Rookie Image Variation SP Autographs, 2020 Summer Camp Autographs, 2020 Summer Camp SP Autographs, 40-Man Futures Autographs, Bowman Ascensions Autographs, Dawn of Glory Autographs, Prime Chrome Signatures, and All-American Game Autographs.

Relics include Chrome Auto Relics, and AFL Flashbacks Relics.

Inserts include 2020 Summer Camp, 2020 Summer Camp Short Print, 40-Man Futures, Bowman Ascensions, and Dawn of Glory.

I really enjoy the look of the Chrome Auto Relics. How would you liked to have been the person to pull this?

A few years from now we could all be looking back on products such as this and say “I wish I would’ve held onto cards of player XYZ.”

I’d say this box was well balanced. The Miguel Bleis autograph is a really nice hit. Lots of people appear to think he’s going to be good. A nice variety of colored refractors also came out of this box.

Checklist

Here is what I pulled:

Autos:

• Alexander Vizcaino Prospect Refractor Auto Redemption
• Miguel Bleis Prospect Auto

Parallels:

• Garrett Mitchell Prospect Gold Shimmer Refractor #’ed/50
• Shane McClanahan RC Green Refractor #’ed/99
• Ronny Mauricio Prospect Purple Refractor #’ed/250
• Spencer Torkelson 2020 Summer Camp Atomic Refractor #’ed/150

Inserts:

• Kevin Alcantara Dawn of Glory
• Jasson Dominguez Bowman Ascensions
• Adley Rutschman 2020 Summer Camp
• Francisco Alvarez 2020 Summer Camp
• Emerson Hancock 40-Man Futures
• Max Meyer 40-Man Futures
• Cole Wilcox 40-Man Futures
• Yoelqui Cespedes 40-Man Futures