REVIEW:2019 Bowman Baseball

The rookies are here! The rookies are here! The rookies are here!

That's what I hear when I hear about the latest Bowman product being released as Bowman is the home of the rookie card or prospect card.

It's the start of my new rookie class rookie card chases as well for my rookie card PC's. Yes, that's a lot of rookie right there. This one along with Bowman Chrome and Bowman Draft is the trio of rookie products that are must haves in my collection.

Let's see how this break of Bowman went for me.

In every hobby box of 2019 Bowman baseball, you will find 24 packs with 10 cards per pack. Each pack comes with a couple of chrome prospect cards along with veteran base and paper prospect cards and rookies. Each box comes with one autograph and boxes run $140.

I like this years base card design. Simple almost full border with full focus on the player. There are 100 cards in the base set including veterans

and some rookies like this Arcia.

For some reason or another, my blog didn't upload the paper prospect cards, but it's simply the same thing as this chromed version with the same amount of cards to chase in 150 in each. All of the big names are there to chase like Vlad Jr and Wander Franco.

Let's take a look at the parallels to chase.

I found two "paper" parallels in my break.

 

Blue /150 which fall 1:238 packs.

Other paper prospect parallels to find are,

Camo, Sky Blue /499, Purple /250, Green /99,Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /5, Platinum 1/1,  and Printing Plates 1/1.

Now the regular base parallel find,

Orange /25. These fall 1:493 packs.

Other base card parallel finds are,
Sky Blue /499, Purple /250, Blue /150, Green /99, Gold /50, Red /5, Platinum 1/1,and  Printing Plates 1/1

The Chrome prospects also have parallels,

Atomic 1:24 packs.

Blue Shimmer /150 that fall 1:238

Aqua Shimmer /175 that fall 1:151

And other parallels for base chrome,
Base Refractor /499, Speckle /299, Purple /250, Blue /150, Aqua /125, Green /99, Green Shimmer /99 , Yellow /75, Gold /50, Gold Shimmer /50, Orange /25, Orange Shimmer /25, Red /5, Red Shimmer /5, SuperFractor 1/1 and Printing Plates 1/1.

Now onto the inserts! They have parallels to such as , Atomic /150, Green /99 , Gold /50, Orange /25 , Red /5, and SuperFractor 1/1.

Scouts 100 that have 100 cards to chase and fall 1:4 packs

Ready For The Show have 20 cards to chase that fall 1:6 packs

30th Anniversary Bowman fall 1:8 packs with 50 cards to chase!

Pipeline with a trio of talent falls 1:12 with 30 cards to chase.

Rookie Of The Year favorites fall 1:11 packs and has 11 cards to chase

Bowman Sterling Continuity continues with 20 more cards that fall 1:24 packs. Let's just bring back this product already!!

Now onto that one hit. You are hoping it's decent with the box prices. I haven't ever hit it big from Bowman and....

that happened again. But, prospect autographs are prospect autographs. Somebody could be a nobody today and could be Mike Trout tomorrow.

Other hits not found in my box include,

• Multiple refractor autographs
• Chrome Rookie Autographs
• Paper Prospect Autographs
• Chrome 30th Anniversary Bowman Autographs
• Chrome Bowman Scouts' Top 100 Autographs
• Chrome Rookie of the Year Favorites Autographs
• Chrome Rookie of the Year Favorites Autographs
• Bowman Sterling Continuity Autographs
• All-American Game Autographs
• 1989 Bowman Buyback Autographs
• Lucky Autograph Redemption

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Bowman is a prospecting product mainly with some veteran hits scattered in. To me this is a sit and wait product. You never know who is going to do what besides the ones with the already established names. Can't judge value til you give it a few years.

There are blaster boxes, rack packs and jumbo boxes you can try as well. Or you could simply buy into a box break which I suggest Midwest Box Breaks when you do so.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to be able to add cards to the giveaway on Twitter I am hosting. Please follow me there to enter @SportCardCollec. Also follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well.

REVIEW:2018 Topps Fire Baseball

Topps Fire returns yet again as a Target exclusive. Another one of those products I don't expect to see locally since Target's don't exist here. Well, the first one in the state is being built as I type this, but it will be over two hours away so I don't expect to go very often or at all.

Also like last year, there are multiple levels of Fire to burn your money on A Collector box, today's review, Value Box Blasters and Fat Packs. Each level has their own exclusive content. So there is much to chase for team or player collectors.

So let's check out what a Collectors Box has inside...

 

In every box of 2018 Topps Fire Collectors Box has 20 packs of 6 cards each. Boxes now come with one autograph (I think last year had 2) and one relic. Boxes run $70-$75 each.

The Topps Fire base card design sticks to the artistic touch of Tyson Beck who this year has players jumping out of the smoldering flames. It's very eye appealing, but still doesn't beat my favorite design from 2014 football. That was as cool as it comes.

The base card set is 200 cards with veterans, legends and rookies included.

 

Once again we find ourselves with parallels and they once again look amazing because of the design. These are Flame parallels that fall 1:4 packs.

 Here is a closer look at those. Bam! I wished this was the base card design!

Orange parallel. You can see that with the background color. These are numbered to 299 and fall 1:13 packs.

 Green Parallel. These fall 1:19 packs and are numbered to 199.

 

Other parallels to find are,

• Blue Chip (Fat Pack only)
• Gold Minted (Blaster only)
• Purple /99 
• Magenta /25
• Onyx SSP
• Inferno 1/1 

Inserts in Topps Fire look great. I like the inserts more than anything else in the product. Check out these Fired Up inserts. There are 15 cards in this set that falls 1:14 packs. I got me some Trout!

Flamethrowers also have 15 cards in the set and falls 1:14 packs as well.

Power Producers is pure gold. Well, not really but looks beautiful. These fall 1:14 packs and are a 15 card set.

Speed Demons also falls 1:14 packs, looks cool and is a 15 card set.

Cannons falls 1:14 packs and is a 15 card set.

And finally, Hot Starts that falls 1:14 packs.

 Now onto the hits. Sneak Peek, I did poorly.

First this Nicky Delmonico relic. Looks awesome, just not a top notch player.

And an autograph of Anthony Banda. Sigh. I think this Fire design is the one design that sticker autographs bothers me on. They just stick out on here.

Other hits I didn't find in my box include,

• Dual Autograph
• Triple Autograph
• Fire Autograph Patch

OVERALL: I like the designs, especially the inserts, but the price point vs what I pulled was painful to see. Once again, I will say this over and over again, every product is a risk and you know going into buying anything that you are taking a risk. It just depends on what level of risk you are willing to take. Luckily with Topps Fire, there are three levels of products to buy.

I do strongly suggest trying some out. I have seen nice hits out of retail as well as hobby. And don't base it upon my poor box showing, just base it upon whether you like the product or not.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to be able to add cards to the Fantasy Baseball Promo.  Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well. 

Donruss, Donruss, Donruss

The next part of my Grady M mail day contained some shiny and some fun cards from Donruss.

Let's take a look.

Some shiny goodness from Optic basketball. This group includes Eric Gordon who I had huge hopes for and held onto all of his rookies of. Big mistake. That's one problem with prospecting.

More shiny cards. This time from Donruss and Donruss Threads.

More Optic shiny. This time some purple. This group includes Kemba Walker who I remember watching play in college on TV. I always thought he would be bigger than he is.

Sweet Wes Unseld pink. Gotta love the Bullets throwback uni

These blue parallels look awesome. Probably the most impressive parallel in the product from what I have seen. There are some great players in this group as well with Vince Carter, Trevor Ariza, Dwayne Wade (who I will always forget that he left Miami), and Ricky Rubio.

I have always liked Panini's Crusade product or even the inserts they used in Rookies and Stars. I always said it should be an individual product for football.

I also got my first look at Donruss baseball. At least some of the inserts. This is the way inserts should be. Numbered, colorful and collectible and not every pack. This is why I would want Panini to get part of the MLB license. They did a great job with Donruss at least with the inserts. We will dig deeper soon with that product.

 

And I love The San Diego Chicken add to the product.

 

Then came these nickname variations. This is what we will dig deeper into at some point.

 

Lots of Stanton. Parallels and Sp.

Like I said this isn't the end of the Donruss talk. This years product was up and down for me. Some positives and some negatives and I am sure you guys will agree with me when the post goes up.

Topps Redemption Mail Day:Giancarlo Stanton Autograph!!!!

On a daily basis I check the updates on my redemption cards, especially two I am waiting on.

Well, in Topps latest redemption update, I knew that one was on it's way.

This morning about 5 a.m.I received an email from Topps telling me that my card was on it's way and five hours, yes, FIVE HOURS later the card was in my hand. Crazy huh? I just assumed they were a bit delayed on the update.

Well, anyways, here is my newest addition. One I am extremely happy to have in hand as the 25 year old has an outstanding future ahead of him. Just wished he played in a more popular place. Hopefully he makes a healthy return on Friday and swings away for the remaining part of the baseball season.

This card is numbered 21/50.

Here is the front. ON CARD AUTO TOO!

Pretty happy with this card and the turnaround on it. Luckily I haven't had the same problems that others have had with Topps redemptions. I have always gotten a two to four month return on them from Topps. I have only gotten one Panini redemption back in that time frame so I usually just get replacements for my redemption cards from them. I have also pulled many more Panini redemptions than Topps too.

So tonight's topic is a three-parter,
First, thoughts on my card?
Second, what's your normal return wait on redemption cards?
Third, which company takes care of redemptions better, Topps or Panini?

2015 Gypsy Queen WINNINGS....YOU GOTTA SEE EM!

Do you ever just see an amazing contest you want to win and when you actually do, your jaw drops in awe with excitement? Well, that just happened to me.

Mario over at Wax Morgue Blog was hosting a contest and was giving away ALL of the HITS from his box of 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen baseball. To my surprise, he announced my name on Twitter as the winner of the card lot. And it was quite the lot to say the least and I think you will agree as you read on.

So let's start this mail day off with some minis....

Big Mac mini...

Both of these mini's are numbered to 199....(the Mcgee doesn't have a crease. It's the way I took the picture)

This framed is numbered to 499.

As we continue on, we are starting to dig into the "hits" of the box. This one is a Shelby Miller relic.

I really liked this one, it's a framed mini relic of Ventura. I am always a big fan of framed relics.

Nice looking autograph that Matt Joyce has. On-Card too!

Yes, I understand I should have put this with the other minis...but it's a black parallel numbered 4/5 so that puts it at another level. It's also one for my Yanks PC of the high-leg kicking El Duque!!

Up next is a Gypsy Queen Glove Stories 1/1 Printing Plate of Steven Souza Jr. I love collecting printing plates!

And finally a HUGE hit in my opinion, a redemption card for an autographed relic of Giancarlo Stanton. That guy is simply swinging away and someone, other than Mike Trout, I have been wanting an autograph of!

I have already redeemed this and currently staring at my computer hoping for it to arrive already. I am pretty stoked about this card if you couldn't tell.

Just when you think that was the end of the winnings, he also threw in a couple of real sweet bonus cards because of the delay in shipping the prize.

Awesome Chuck Liddell fighter worn memorabilia. This is going straight to the PC and so isn't this....

RONDA ROUSEY!! I have always wanted a card of her and with a relic one being my first, I am definitely not complaining.

Overall, this was an extremely generous mail day and one I am still in awe with. Thanks again to Mario over at Wax Morgue Blog for the awesome cards. If you haven't checked out his blog yet, please do so. Plenty of fun stuff to read and great giveaways too!

As a bonus note, whenever the Stanton arrives I plan on posting a pic so stay tuned for that!