2007 Bowman

Yesterday, I went to an old fashioned card show at a Quality Inn in Lancaster, PA: twenty dealers, thirty tables, all in an old motel ball room. It was as if I stepped into a time machine, and it was 1994 again!

I was looking for another box of '07 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it were) I had spent about half my bankroll on singles, and the $65 the dealer wanted for BDP&P was out of my price range. But he did have leftover boxes of regular Bowman.

Earlier this year, I spent $100 for an HTA box. This particular dealer had HTAs for half that price, but I went with the regular Hobby for only $35. No, that's not a misprint. $50 for HTA, and $35 for a Hobby box of current-year Bowman. Here's the first pack:

Base:
A. Soriano
J. Johnson
P. Burrell
R. Furcal

Inserts:
Prospects (2:1): C. Fermaint, B. Knox

Mirrors:
A-Rod Bullshit Waste of Space (1:6): #149

Parallels:
Gold (1:1): D. Uggla
Chrome Prospects (2:1): B. Knox, B. Roberts

I will not be posting a full break; however, I will tell you what "hits" this Hobby box yielded.

I got a Blue parallel autograph of Tyler Colvin. Tyler who? Well, he was the thirteenth player selected in the 2006 draft, and hit .299 with 16 HRs and an .812 OPS between the Cubs' Single-A and AA affiliates this past season. Not bad. However, even though this is his first autographed card, Colvin's first Bowman card was in last year's BDP&P. Which begs the question: If Tyler Colvin's "1st Bowman Card" was in 2006; then what's the point of including him in the 2007 set? (especially since this is not a "true" RC?)

In addition to the parallel autograph of a non-rookie, I pulled four more worthless A-Rod Mirrors, and an X-Fractor of Greg Smith -- the 15th best prospect in the Diamondbacks organization (according to Baseball America).

I guess being rated the 15th-best prospect in your organization by Baseball America, is a lot better than being rated best in anything by the Greater Almaty Chamber of Commerce.

(Fast forward to the 3:30 mark to get the reference.)

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So why has 2007 Bowman been relegated to the "Junk Wax" pile already? Topps still bills Bowman as "The Home of the Rookie Card," but there aren't nearly as many "Rookies" as there used to be. Granted, it's not all Topps' fault (the MLBPA saw to that). But "Rookie"-wise, there's nothing here anymore.

Working with the new MLBPA rules, Topps had to "do something" with Bowman. And "do something" is what Topps did alright. However the results -- the inclusion of autographed base set/Prospect cards and the bundling with Bowman Chrome -- have clearly hurt the brand more than helped it. Bowman collectors don't want autographed base set cards (much less parallels of autographed base set cards), and have never been interested in Chrome. And the Chro-morons still won't touch this stuff.

All of which explains why current-year Bowman Hobby boxes are in the Junk Wax pile. I guess doing something for the sake of "doing something," is worse than doing nothing at all!