Box Break: 2013 Bowman Hobby

I know earlier in the spring I said I wasn't collecting Bowman sets anymore.  I usually try to sample each set that comes out that interests me just to see what its all about.  Plus, it gives me a good amount of trade bail.  I started off just buying a blaster of this years Bowman.  Then Another, and then some loose packs.  I liked what I saw and fell off the wagon.  I decided since I've collected Bowman for many years now, that I wanted to continue building them.  At the CSA show last weekend I bought a hobby box to help me on my journey to completion.  Here's the spoils:

I really like the Ice parallels.  I could do without the purple and red parallels of parallels though.  I've never seen purple ice in person and red ice only happens in hockey.  I could have done worse than Giolito and Howard so I can't complain about these 2 cards.

This was apparently a Rockies parallel hot box since I got the blue refractor of Max White and the regular blue bordered Shane Broyles.

I think he mini chrome refractors showcasing the top 5 prospects per team is a slick idea.  I got several regulars as well as the blue wave Aaron Sanchez from the Blue Jays.

Aaron Sanchez hot box.  Notice the Same picture was used in this card as the Mini Chrome above.  Albert Almora is a nice prospect that the Cubs are hoarding for stockpile of Prospects.

I had no idea what this card was when I pulled it.  I went to BaseballCardPedia as well as Ebay to do some research.  I'm not sure I understand the point of blue sapphire rookie reprints as a continuity insert set.  I'd rather just see the original border.  Or No Reprints at all.

Here's my big hit of the box.  It's actually a refractor autograph so I can't complain too much.  I'm not really getting "Andrew Aplin" out of that chicken scratch.

I got a lot of decent cards from the box but they are mostly from teams that don't have a huge following.  I'm sure I'll be able to find nice homes for all of these cards eventually.

Here's all my trade bait from 2013 Bowman:

Gold Parallel: 4 Jackson, 6 Freese, 13 Me Cabrera, 19 Middlebrooks, 48 Sale, 49 Price, 50 Pujols(2), 51 Longoria, 53 Montero, 58 N. Cruz, 61 S. Marte, 64 Gallardo, 66 Headley, 89 Nathan, 92 Wright(2), 94 Heyward(2), 96 J Zimmerman, 97 Bumgarner, 98 Holliday, 99 M Montero, 109 Phillips, 131 Hechavarria, 133 Gose, 134 Beachy(2), 136 Jeter, 137 Freeman, 144 Alvarez, 145 Motte, 147 Ortiz, 152 Choo, 153 Beltran, 173 Cingrani, 177 Rizzo, 178 Belt, 182 Stanton(2), 183 Segura, 184 J. Santana, 191 Gordon, 197 Young
Hometown Parallel: 90 Butler, 98 Holliday, 102 Halladay, 144 Alvarez, 178 Belt, BP3 Montgomery, BP6 Salazar, BP7 Hahn, BP28 Muno, BP31 Robles, BP51 Freeman, BP104 Sanchez
Silver Ice Parallel: 98 Holliday, 190 Howard, BP5 Giolito
Purple Prospects Parallel: BP29 Diaz, BP35 Cisnero, BP48 Sanburn
Blue Bordered Parallel: BP96 Broyles #d 177/500
Orange Bordered Parallel: 129 Maronde #d 112/250
Blue Sapphire Rookie Reprint: 1955 Bowman Hank Aaron
Bowman Top 100: BTP-37 Almora, 46 Sanchez, 60 Rosenthal, 73 Webster
Cream of the Crop Mini Refractors: CC-MB3 Morris, MM2 Yelich, NYM1 d'Arnaud, TBR1 Myers, TR4 Gallo, WN2 Goodwin, WN4 Cole
Cream of the Crop Mini Blue Refractor: CC-TBJ1 Sanchez #d 240/250
Prospect Chrome Refractor: BCP15 Gelalich #d160/500
Prospect Chrome Blue Refractor: BCP14 White #d 176/250
Prospect Chrome Refractor Autograph: Andrew Aplin

Recent Pack Breaks

On some of my recent Lowe's runs, I've slipped into Target (which is in the same shopping center, conveniently!) to pick up a few packs to rip.  I have gotten some funny looks from Target associates since I've been walking into their store looking like a bum.   Imagine some (almost) 30 year old dude walking in to the card section with muddy Red Wings, dirt crusted work pants and a grimy, sweaty t-shirt.  I think I've either scared the kids away with either my unkempt appearance or the stench of sunblock and sweat!  More cards for me!

So I've decided to go ahead and collect Bowman this year after much debate.  I've picked up a few (3) blasters and several of the value packs.  I had past success with the blasters which you can read about in my archives but the only real card of interest that I've gotten recently is this Gold LJ Hoes.  Hehe, Gold Hoes....  Still, out of all of the Bowman I've busted, I've yet to get any other Oriole card besides this one, a regular and chrome version of Jonathan Schoop.  No Crush Davis, No Adam Jones, No Bundy, No Manny...  Luckily I've gotten a few in trades.

Here's my updated list of 2013 Bowman I have for trade:

2013 Bowman:
Gold Parallel: 4 Jackson, 48 Sale, 49 Price, 50 Pujols(2), 51 Longoria, 55 Lynn, 92 Wright(2), 94 Heyward(2), 99 M. Montero, 109 Phillips, 131 Hechavarria,  132 Beltre, 133 Gose, 134 Beachy(2), 145 Motte, 151 C. Santana, 153 Beltran, 173 Cingrani, 182 Stanton(2), 184 J. Santana, 200 Posey
Hometown Parallel: 90 Butler, 102 Halladay, 124 Shields, 178 Belt
Prospects International Parallel: BP6 Salazar, BP7 Hahn, BP28 Muno, BP31 Robles
Silver Ice Parallel: 98 Holliday
Orange Parallel: 129 Maronde 112/250
Prospects Purple Parallel: BP29 Diaz, 35 Cisnero, 48 Sanborn
Cream of the Crop Mini Refractors: CC-NYM1 d'Arnaud, CC-MM-2 Yelich, CC-MB3
Chrome Refractor Parallel: BCP15 Gelalich #d160/500
Bowman Top 100: 60 Rosenthal 73 Webster
Bowman Prospect Autograph: BPA JC Ji-Man Choi

My 2013 Topps Series 2 breaks have been pretty good.  I've gotten some decently rare cards out of the 2 hanger boxes and the 2 jumbo packs I've broken.  I've had some crap collation in the Hanger boxes though. Except for the inserts, both boxes had almost the same base cards in them.  Out of the 65 so base cards, there were only about 6 different cards between them.  The Rack packs haven't been as bad but out of the 222 total cards out of the breaks, I've only got 93 towards the entire series 2 set.  I guess these cards make up for it (but not really).

I got the Bryce Harper sunglasses SP out of the first hanger box.  While I don't really care for his Nattitude, I do respect the way that he plays the game hard.  I guess that's why I decided to start a mini PC of him.  Don't send me a ton of his cards though, I'll just add to the binder when I pull his cards from packs.

Also, from hanger box #1 I got this red screaming Trout.  The red Target borders really look good with the Angels uniforms.  Shouldn't the 2012 awards be in series 1 instead of series 2?  Either way, this card is headed to my Trout PC Binder.

From hanger box #2 I got some more Nats-jo.  Jordan Zimmerman seems to follow me around since I pulled his mini auto from my box of Allen & Ginter last summer.  Now I get this Chasing History relic card #'d 42 out of 99.  

I think this one came out of the first rack pack I opened.  This is the first digital Camo parallel that I've seen in person and I have to admit, the look pretty sharp.  More than I can say for those pink border abominations.  I think the pick just reminds me to much of the Justin Beaver and Moonlight vampire sissy cards that lurk next to the sports cards at Target.  Beaver will eventually kill himself in high speed car wreck and I've soaked up enough sunshine this year that I probably would kill any vampires that would come into my presence.

Here's a list of my available trade bait that I have:

2013 Topps Series 2:
Desert Camo Parallel: 601 Brandon Moss #d 81/99
Chasing History Gold Relic: CHR-JZ Jordan Zimmerman #d 42/99
Blue Walmart Parallel: 416 Lyles, 452 Ibanez, 417 Forsythe
Red Target Parallel: 335 Hermann, 384 McGee, 483 Valdespin, 521 Scribner, 540 Bourn, 589 Fernandez, 602 Sanchez, 610 Beachy, 614 Upton, 630 Dirks, 635 Gyorko
Chase It Down: CD-2 Sandoval
World Baseball Classic: WBC-9 Beltran
Making Their Mark: MM-4 Kipnis, 9 Skaggs
1972 Minis: TM-52 Freese, 63 Berra, 86 Brett
Chasing History (Silver Foil): CH-76 Gwynn, 77 Clemente, 100 Niekro
Chasing History (Silver Foil/Holofoil): 56 Holliday, 59 Lynn, 95 Cain, 98 Crawford
Chasing History (Gold Foil/Holofoil): CH-53 Weaver, 62 McCovey, 76 Gwynn, 82 Hernandez, 94 Cobb, 95 Cain

Not-Quite-So-Late-to-the-Game 3 Blaster Break Report: 2013 Bowman

I'm almost caught up with the retail purchases that I made earlier this Spring.  I've been a big fan of Bowman in the past but recently I've started to lose interest in the product offerings.  For the first time last fall I didn't collect the annual Draft Picks and Prospects set.  I decided not to collect the regular Bowman set this year either.  I'm not sure what has started to make me turn my attention away from Bowman but I guess I'm going to save some money now!

Even though I'm not collecting the set, I still picked up a total of 3 blasters.  While not usually a fan of blasters, I usually buy rack packs, hanger boxes, or value packs.  I could have bought a hobby box for that price but this time it was worth me buying blasters.  You'll see why if you keep reading.

Everyone has seen the base set design.  No need to rehash it.  The first 2 blasters I got had great collation.  Not a single dupe.  I should have stopped there.  The 3rd blaster I got was a mix of the first 2 blasters almost card for card.  Even the gold bordered parallels were almost the same!  It happens but it would have been nice to get more than one Oriole card out of the entire 3 boxes!

Onto the inserts we have the crappily scanning Top 100 inserts.  I got #73 of some Red Sox guy who used to be a Dodgers guy.  Not sure what the white speckles are in the scan.  I was not eating powdered doughnuts over the scanner.

My lone refractor was of this Jello-Itch guy for the Reds.   This was just about the only different card in blaster box #3.  The advantage of getting a lot of doubles was that I got 2 base and 2 chrome Prospect cards of Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa so there's that!

I destroyed the odds (I like to think so) on getting 2 Orange bordered parallels from box 1 and box 3.  The Darvish is on hold for right now buy please send me your best trade offers for the Maronde.

This nice little autograph came out of blaster box #1.  I think this card is what inspired me to buy another blaster of the product.

So I got this autograph in the second box.  Not too bad.  I was inspired once again to buy a 3rd blaster but the House won that time and stuck me with a ton of duplicates!  Buying packs is a mild form of legal gambling in Virginia I'm convinced and it usually kicks me right in the butt!

This one is also on hold, pending a trade.

I was on a 3 blaster streak of pulling autographs going back to my Gypsy Queen blaster in April.  I tried rolling the dice again and my luck ran out!

Overall, Bowman has a pretty nice design this year but I'm not collecting it just to collect it like I've always done.  I really used to enjoy reading the Scouting reports on the backs of the cards in the past but I just don't have the time or patience to do that any more.

Here's a full listing of the notable cards I have for Trade:

I have a bunch of base cards.  Send me your list and I'll try to knock some of them out:

Gold Parallel: 48 Sale, 49 Price, 50 Pujols(2), 51 Longoria, 55 Lynn, 92 Wright(2), 94 Heyward(2), 99 M. Montero, 109 Phillips, 132 Beltre, 133 Gose, 134 Beachy(2), 145 Motte, 151 C. Santana, 153 Beltran, 182 Stanton(2), 184 J. Santana
Hometown Parallel: 90 Butler, 102 Halladay, 124 Shields
Prospects International Parallel: BP6 Salazar, BP7 Hahn, BP31 Robles
Silver Ice Parallel: 98 Holliday
Orange Parallel: 129 Maronde 112/250
Cream of the Crop Mini Refractors: CC-NYM1 d'Arnaud, CC-MM-2 Yelich, CC-MB3
Chrome Refractor Parallel: BCP15 Gelalich #d160/500
Bowman Top 100: 73 Allen Webster
Bowman Prospect Autograph: BPA JC Ji-Man Choi