2012 Bowman Review

Product: 2012 Bowman
Box Price:80-100$
Distribution: 24 Packs/Box  10 Cards/Pack
Hits: 1 Chrome Auto per Box

My Grade: A-  I have never really been a fan of Bowman sets because they include a large number of prospects that I have never heard of and will never hear of because they will never make it to the bigs. HOWEVER, With the great number of incoming premier prospects like Bryce Harper and Yu Darvish I decided to buy a couple 20$ blaster boxes and was really pleasantly surprised by the look and quality of the cards. Bowman has been doing the same thing for years which is the big reason I gave them such a high grade is because they are not trying to be something they are not. They do include a good number of parallel variations but this adds to the collectability of the base set. I feel like I have talked too much already. Pic time!

Pictured above is a look and the base cards in the 220 card set. I was pretty happy with the number of stars and up-and-coming prospects that I pulled from the boxes that I got. The base cards have a Beautiful design and make me want to build the entire set. 

This is a pretty cool insert/parallel that they do. Its called the 'International' variation and instead of the standard picture back ground the player featured on the card are depicted on top of the flag of the nation of origin.

Picture above are some of the parallel variations included in the set. top left are the retail Purple variations. these are all bowman 1st year cards and can only be found in retail rack packs.
Top right is the Orange parallel and is serial #'d /250
the bottom row are all base card Gold variations. The gold variations can be found one in every pack.

Pictured here are a couple examples of the Chrome Prospect cards included in every pack. There are refractor variations that are serial numbered from the standard refractor /500 and including color variations all the way down to the Superfractor that is numbered 1/1.

In one of the blaster boxes I was lucky enough to pull an autograph. The only way that this could be any better is if the signature was an on card auto. The whole sticker autograph is a little depressing but still cool when you get a chance to pull one.

This is one of the inserts that has been around for years now. It is the Bowman's Best inserts. These inserts have a great look and include both current stars and the stars of tomorrow.
This set has changed my perception of Bowman and I hope that they can keep this momentum going for the upcoming sets in coming years. This set is not too big (220) so it would be a pretty easy one to build including the chrome prospect inserts for a total of 440 cards. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I hope it provides you with valuable information in your collecting. Thanks again and as always.... Peace and Baseball cards!!

2012 Topps Tribute Review

Product: 2012 Topps Tribute!!
Box Price: $280+
Distribution: 6 Packs/box 5 cards/pack
Hits: 6 Hits per box (3 Relics and 3 autos)

My Grade: B+ 
   This is product that my collector friend Jon and I get the most excited about after seeing the product in 2011 our minds were blown by the quality of the cards and uniqueness of the set. The 2012 set followed up 2011 with another great design and more unique cards. However there is one big difference in the cards this year. Topps decided to put each of their autos and game used jersey cards in non-circulated  sealed cases almost as if to say, "keep your grubby hands off of this card you just bought, we cant trust our collectors to care for a card properly." Now this may be because Topps didn't want to compromise the integrity/quality of the cards, but I like to think up my own little dialogue that I think a Topps executive might say.
    Since I can't personally afford to drop 300$ on a box of baseball cards. Jon and I split a box to open. what we pulled was NOT fantastic, however the product looked great. just to give you an idea of just how bad our box was. Logan Morrison and Adam Lind made up 2 of our 3 autos from the box. as great of players as they are to their respective teams, thats NOT who we wanted to see come out of those packs. Here we go. Here are some hits that I have picked up along the way from this years' Tribute.

First of all here are the base cards. Each card has a rainbow finish on the surface of the card and is printed on thicker stock cardboard. The Eddie Mathews card on the bottom right of the picture is one of the serial #'d parallels. There are #'d parallels from /299 /199 /99 /60 /25 /10 /1. Very cool looking and collectable cards. Lets get to the fun stuff.

 I have never really been a fan of redemptions just because they take FOREVER to get back to you, but I was actually pretty excited to see this redemption come out of our box and somewhat save it.... I am still waiting on it from Topps.

After Tribute had been out for a couple weeks I bought a single pack and pulled this little Gem. It is a Mike/Giancarlo Stanton Gold autograph serial #'d /15!! I love seeing cards like this just because there are so few of them available, and it looks Amazing!

After Jon and I managed to get some money for the bad pulls we had from the box we had just enough to buy 1 more pack each... this is what my pack contained... NOPE, MOVING ON!!

I love the aesthetics of this years set so I have been looking for good deals on Ebay and managed to find these Tulo Game Used cards for pretty cheap so I scooped them up. On the left is the Superstar Swatches 'Tulo Time' card, and on the right is the Positions of Power 'SS' variation card. you can see how unique the cards are with the jersey swatches and card designs.both of these are serial #'d /99. 

These are a couple more of the cards that are available in the set on the left is the Carlos Gonzalez Debut Digits '28' card, and on the right is the Miguel Cabrera Positions of Power '1B'. Both of these are serial #'d /50 and are really cool looking cards. Overall I am pleased with the look of this years set but what could be better with a high end collector/hit seeker set is the selection of players included. there aren't too many collectors that I know that get excited about spending 50$ for a pack and pulling an Alexi Ogando or Adam Lind auto #'d /99. Oh yeah and get rid of these uncirculated sealed cases, these cards aren't made of gold or anything. anyways, This set is for the select collector that can afford the high dollar card. if you have the money laying around I thing that Triple Threads or Museum Collection might offer a better option but Tribute does have some very unique designs that aren't found anywhere else. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and as always...
Peace and Baseball Cards!!

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen review

Product: 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen
Box Price: 110$+
Distribution: 24 packs/box  10 cards/pack
Hits: 2 Autographs + 2 Relics in each hobby box

My Grade:  B   Topps has followed up its base set, Tribute, and Heritage with another solid set with unique inserts and parallels. I love the look of the base cards and most of the inserts with only a couple minor gripes.
Pictured below are the base cards from the set. Grey borders along with cream colored accents and a small, but not too small, name and product logo banner along the bottom. It is nice that each pack has 10 cards in it and typically has one or two insert/parallel cards in it. not always though. The base card set is not too large to collect as a secondary set at right around 300 base cards + 50 SP's.

These are the mini parallels that fall one per pack. The minis also have parallels like the green border(1:24 packs) you see in the top left of the picture and pictured below as well. But the minis also have different parallels that have different designs on the backs of the cards. there are the 'straight cut' backs, 'gypsy' queen' backs.

Most of the different inserts are shown here. Future Stars, Hallmark Heroes, Glove Stories, Moonshots. also show here are the retail framed paper parallel cards that are almost a bronze color and add a great parallel to the collectability of this set. One of the inserts from the Gypsy Queen sets is the Gypsy Queen/King inserts that actually depict real gypsies and have relic and autograph. Although they are very rare and the autos and relics are even more rare does something like that really belong in a baseball card set? I am gonna go with no on that, but thats just me. I feel that it detracts from the legitimacy of this set.

shown below is another picture of the retail Framed Paper parallel cards. This type of parallel/insert almost makes up for the Gypsy King insert cards because they look so good.

 Shown here is a Mini Green Border parallel of Cal Ripken Jr. These mini green border parallels fall 1:24 packs and also have black parallel versions that fall 1:12 packs.

 I wish I had a relic and an autograph to include in this post. but from what i have seen online they have a framed relic that resembles very much the Allen and Ginter framed Relics. The standard relic is not framed and looks just like the base card with a jersey swatch in it. The autographs look very nice There are large variations and mini autos and are written right on the card.
Topps has created yet another solid product and hopefully they keep up this momentum through the rest of the sets this year.Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and as always, Peace and Baseball cards!!

2012 Topps Heritage Review

Product: 2012 Topps Heritage
Box Price: 80$
Distribution: 24 packs/box 9 cards/pack
Hits: 1 Relic or Autograph per box.

My grade:  B.   The hobby box that I opened was not great but the product is a great looking set and takes after one of the most iconic Topps designs in its 60 year history.

   When I saw the pre-release pictures of the 2012 Topps Heritage cards at the end of last year I was excited because the design was aesthetically pleasing and the inserts and parallels seemed to fit the theme of the set. The inserts included in the set have received criticism because they are bland and understated. In my mind the inserts fit very well to the theme of the set. Heritage is supposed to be an homage to the Topps set of 50 years prior, not to wow you with flashy inserts and parallels. That being said without further delay here are the pics of the 2012 Topps Heritage set.
Pictured below are the chrome parallels of the base cards. Each of the chrome parallel cards are serial Numbered /1963, and there are also chrome refractor parallels that have a rainbow finish are serial numbered /563.

 Pictured here is an original 1963 Topps Heritage 50th anniversary buyback card which fall 1 out of every 2 boxes. you can tell its a buyback card buy the foil '50th anniversary' stamp in the top left corner of the card. This is a pretty cool little bonus in the box which was considered a box loader card. this was much better than pulling one of the three card sheets that pretty prevalent in these boxes.

 Inserts:
     Top left: Josh Beckett New Age Performers.(this is a returning insert set from previous years.)
     Top right: Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Iglesias Short Printed base cards fall 1:3 packs
     Middle: Mini sticker inserts. These are pretty cheesy inserts, but very nostalgic.
     Bottom: Now and then inserts picture an old time great with a current star on the same card. Very cool cards

 Pictured here is a short printed base card variation that is called an "image swap". If you notice the small picture on the bottom right of the card is the image that should normally be the larger/main image on the card. This is a really cool variation and there are also color swap variations that have different color name banners than the base cards.

 This is the relic that I pulled from my box. Very cool looking, simple card. Jimmy Rollins Clubhouse collection card with a jersey swatch has a bright red pinstripe through it. The clubhouse collection cards have randomly inserted Auto/relics that are serial #'d. Wish I could have pulled one of those. Other hits for this set include cards that have coins imbedded in them. I have no interest in these cards as they are a novelty. There are also Real One Autographs that are hand signed, on card autographs. and Real One Red Ink Autos that are hand serial numbered /63.

This set is a classy tribute to an iconic design. i would try to build the set if it weren't 500 cards big. This set is one of my favorites of the year. One way to improve this set would be to include more than 1 hit per box. even if the box would have cost 10-20$ more it would have been worth it to see an extra hit. Overall this is a great set that is worth the time to build the set and collect the cards of your favorite players. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my blog and as always, Peace and Baseball Cards!!!