I couldn't help myself and picked up a blaster of 2014 Bowman the other day. It's been a lot of fun to check out everyone's reaction to the product on twitter since last Wednesday and there have certainly been some incredibly profitable cards pulled out of packs.
Bowman is, as we all know by now, a rookie & prospects product. It's the roulette table of the hobby world where the odds seem reasonable with minimal skill required. What I mean is, every team has prospects & rookies. And every team has a quantity of collectors out there. Combine those two facts with baseball's version of the movie trailer phenomena (everybody's going to be great!) and you have a highly desirable product. I don't consider myself a rookie prospector but, by God, I can't lose, right?! Even if I don't pull an Abreu or a Tanaka or a Bryant.....I'll pull a prospect that SOMEBODY's going to want to collect. And it will probably be a SP parallel, too!
Topps has to be smiling ear-to-ear with the timing of this product's release coinciding with a VERY extraordinary start to the season for White Sox rookie and Cuban Sensation 2.0, Jose Abreu. My last check on the Bay of E revealed that "base" Abreu autographs, the one that everybody and their mother seem to be pulling....are gong fro no less than $250.
$250. My God!?
Don't get me wrong - what Abreu is doing in the Windy City is very comparable to the shot-to-the-arm Mr. Puig provided for the Dodger faithful last season. Lots of power with an eye-popping HR total at this point in the season that easily multiply into historic season totals. It will be exciting to watch and see if Jose can keep this up!
In the meantime, I really wanted to pull a card of his for my collection. Sure, I would have loved to have pulled one of those amazing autographs. It would have been fun to see what I could have turned it into, from a vintage perspective.....but I'm still a baseball fan and baseball card collector. I'm not DEAD, but I do possess the out-dated appreciation for a simple rookie card. Abreu's got a card in this set? It's #17, you say? Oh, I'd really love to pull one!
Blind squirrel, meet nut:
It really is a fine card! The dichotomy between the amazing White Sox throwback uniform (even the batting helmet!) and the fact that Abreu is only a tad more than one month into his MLB career is something I can appreciate. The card is extremely bright, crisp and white - and it draws your eyes directly to Abreu's powerful follow-through. The Sox logo, name and position are stacked in perfect symmetry with the two reminders on top that this is Jose Abreu's BOWMAN CARD and it is his FIRST one.
Here's the back:
I always appreciate card-back authors who utilize the "old hobby English" with terms like "loop", "circuit", "offerings" and "Campaign". Never let these things die, Topps!
SO, there you have it. I also pulled a prospect autograph card, a Bowman 100 insert and a #'d Kershaw parallel. Overall, it was actually a really solid blaster. I even pulled a Kimbrel base for my PC! But above all of that, I pulled an Abreu rookie card....the card I was hoping to pull (other than Masahiro-sama).....and I'm pretty happy about that!
Thanks for reading and KEEP COLLECTING!
Congrats on the pull!
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