Card-Ola: 2010 Bowman

One Hobby box of 2010 Bowman (supplied by Topps)
24 packs per box, 10 cards per pack

The Video

Note: Part one of the box break was rejected by the fascists at YouTube for being over the 10 minute time limit. Fuck you YouTube.



The Pulls

Base Set: 82 of 220 (37.27%)
1 double
Prospects: 56 of 110 (50.91%)

Parallels

24 Golds
1 Blue (1:17, numbered to 520): Youkilis
1 Orange (1:35, numbered to 250): K. Blanks
38 Chromes
1 Chrome Refractor (1:16, numbered to 777): A. Oliveras

Inserts

12 1992 Bowman Throwback (110 cards, 1:2) Zimmerman, Soriano, T. Hunter, J. Reyes, Cap'n Cheesburger, R. Braun, Y. Molina, J. Lester, M. Buehrle, A. Jones, Ichiro, Z. Greinke
12 Topps 100 Prospects (100 cards, 1:2) M. Stanton, M. Moustakas, J. Vitters, D. Ackley, A. Romine, A. Cashner, L. Forsythe, C. Marrero, R. Kalish, J. McGee, M. Hobgood, H. Conger
8 Bowman Expectations (50 cards, 1:3) C. Jones/Freeman, Soriano/Castro, Mauer/Posey, Sandoval/Neal, V. Martinez/C. Santana, Ethier/Lambo, D. Price/McGee, Halladay/Drabek
5 Chrome USA National Team/18U National Team (42 cards, 1:4) T. Bauer, C. Colon, M. Newman, T.J. Walz, P. Pfeifer
1 Chrome Refractor USA National Team (42 cards, 1:16, numbered to 777) S. Gray

Autographs/Game Used

1 Chrome Rookie Autograph (14 cards, 1:113) S. Sizemore
1 Chrome Prospect Autograph (31 cards, 1:38) A. Gose
1 Chrome Prospect Autographed Refractor (31 cards, 1:96, numbered to 500) R. Brothers
1 Future Game Triple Relic (37 cards, 1:402, numbered to 99) M. Bumgarner

The Review

$80 for a box of this? That was my first impressions after I opened this box of 2010 Bowman. Oh sure, I pulled three autographs and a triple jersey card -- when all you're promised is one. And yes, there are the first MLB licensed pseudo-rookies of Stephen Strasburg, Aroldis Chapman, and others. Not to mention the first Topps card of Bryce whatshisface (the 16-year-old who was on the cover of SI last year). But $80 for a box of Bowman?

Obviously, the Quixotic quest for the Strasburg autograph has gotten Joe Collector to take notice of Bowman Baseball again, and is driving this product. And there are some redeeming qualities to 2010 Bowman: The autographs are all on-card and not on stickers or (worse) letter patches, and most (but not all) of the autographs are available as un-autographed base cards -- including the Strasburg. You can actually collect a set of Bowman Baseball again, and we should thank Topps for listening to The Hobby.

But $80 a box?

Unlike previous years, there are some true rookies in Bowman. Jason Heyward, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner lead Bowman's strongest rookie card class since it went to this format in '06. And along with the aforementioned Strasburg and Chapman, you'll find pseudo-rookies of #2 overall draft pick Dustin Ackley and #3 draft pick Donovan Tate (all of whom did not appear in last year's BDP&P).

So the player selection doesn't suck, for once. But $80 a box?

The design is the same hackneyed red/green/blue bordered design Topps has recycled for over a dozen years. Most of the "Prospects" will never amount to much. There's the unnecessary one-per-pack Gold parallel and the even more unnecessary two-per-pack Chrome cards -- which look super cheap this year. The good news is that, for the first time in five years, there are inserts. The bad news? There are 302 of them! That's as many inserts as the base set AND the Prospects set put together! And really, isn't it a bit too soon to reuse the 1992 Bowman design?

Product Rating: 3 Gumsticks (out of five)

This is clearly not an $80/box product and once the hype dies down, it will settle to a more reasonable $65-$70. Topps has improved the Bowman brand, albeit slightly, but for a product that is still billed as "The Home of the Rookie Card," there are still very few true rookie cards.