Bike Spokes and Shoe Boxes – 2013 Bowman review

Per Box Items:
24 packs per box
10 cards per pack
2 Bowman Chrome cards per pack
1 autographed Bowman Chrome per box

The base set cards feature a color action shot of the named player. Bordered in white the card fronts have small graphics at the card bottom. The set and player names are in silver foil. The player’s position is also shown. The Bowman Pick cards are similar to the base set The bottom graphic is rounded on the Bowman pick cards. Another difference between the two sets is that the Bowman Pick cards also have the position abbreviation in silver foil. The card fronts are trimmed in a team color. The card backs are photo-less. The backs include moderate biographical information, moderate career highlights, 2012 and career statistics. The backs of the base set cards are gray bordered. The backs of the Bowman Pick cards are white. A parallel for the base set are gold borders. A parallel for the Bowman Pics set are the Bowman Chrome cards.

What I pulled:
236 unique cards, no dupes
106 base set cards = 48% of the base set
48 Bowman Pick
39 Bowman Chrome
24 Gold
6 Home Country cards (4 base set, 2 Bowman Picks)
4 Bowman Chrome refractor Minis
2 Silver Ice
3 other Bowman Chrome inserts
1 Bowman Chrome refractor
1 Blue Border
1 Red Ice
1 Bowman Chrome Autographed refractor

Base card front and back:

Inserts and Parallels: (not all scanned)
Nay refractor #/500
Harper Gold
Home Country: Linsky, Freese, Rizzo, Nathan, Villanueva, Calderon
Ice: Cespedes, Mathisen
Bowman Chrome Top Picks: Skaggs, Guerrieri
Blue Border: Hamels #500
Red Ice: Kuroda #1/25
Bowman Chrome reprint Hank Arron
Bowman Chrome mini refractor; Bundy, Cole, Taveras, Maronde

The Hit:
Bowman Chrome Stephen Piscotty autographed refractor #/500

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2013 Bowman baseball, home of the Rookie insert card! The box is really broken into two parts, the base set cards and parallels and the Bowman Pick cards and parallels. Topps again uses sharp photographs for their cards. The card designs are crisp and clean. I really like the look of the ice parallels. The autograph is on-card. Another device I really like is the mini chrome refractors. That would be my choice of insert set to chase. I would have like to seen one or two more just plain old reftactors. That being said though, as usual, I feel that there are WAY TOO many insert cards in the box. I think Topps needs to take a few of these out to get collectors that much closer to completing the base set.

The Bottom Line:
I give 2013 Bowman a buy rating. There are lots and lots of of inserts and parallels to chase. Buy a box and trade your Tigers to me!
The Final Score:
Final Ratings (Out of 10):
Base set collect-ability: 5/10
Big-hit Hunter: 6/10
Prospector Hunter: 10/10
Value: 10/10
Overall Quality: 10/10

Overall: 41/50 (82% = B)
The biggest drawback being that you will need two boxes and some light trading to complete the base set.

Topps sent me this box to review for Full Spectrum Baseball

Thanks to Topps for making this review possible!