Pack of the Day 45: 2013 Bowman Chrome Hobby Box #1

At the local card shop's 20th Anniversary Party a couple of weeks ago I picked some stuff up that I am just now getting around to posting about. I purchased one box of Bowman Chrome and won another one in the prize drawing. I don't remember which box is which, but I guess that doesn't really matter.

2013 Bowman Chrome Hobby Box

Base Cards - 26 / 220 - 11.00%

Given the size of the set, you really don't get a lot of base cards in a box. The box is pretty think anyway, and there are actually two thick cardboard spacers in the bottom just so it will be thick enough to fit a flap for the box lid into it. You get 18 packs in a box, with 4 cards in a pack. I actually expected that the product would have 24 packs because that sticks in my mind as the standard, so I was pretty surprised to find the cardboard spacers and relatively small number of packs in the first box.

Prospects - 34 / 110 - 30.00%

You do get a larger percentage of the Prospects set in the box, but that just means more doubles as you work on finishing the base set. Of course, Topps would have you believe that is a bonus, because LOOK HOW MUCH THESE GUYS COULD BE WORTH SOMEDAY! But these aren't even the cards that sell for big dollars anyway. The cards you really want are the brightly-colored and hopefully autographed Refractors. These base cards are just the vehicle of delivery for those cards. Otherwise you would just be handing Topps a couple of hundred dollars and then hoping they hand back a single shiny card in return.

It would appear that if you are an Astros fan, the various Prospects sets are the way to go. Jose Altuve is the only Astro on the big-league team who appears in other products with any regularity. Portillo is there because the posed photo on his card is pretty good and I needed something to fill that sixth space up and prevent the dreaded uneven scan.

Base Refractors - 2 - Todd Frazier, Ryan Howard

Prospect Refractors - 2 - Tommy Kahnle, Ryan Court

Nothing too crazy here. I wish I had some better filler text for these, but I've got nothing.

Risin' Thru The Ranks - 1 - Alen Hanson

These are mini-cards that fall one per box.



Blue Sapphire Reprint - 1 - Jimmy Rollins

These also fall one per box.

Blue Refractor - 1 - Oswaldo Arcia # 136 / 250

My Refractor pulls out of these two boxes were not that exciting, with both boxes including a Blue and a Purple, the lowest two tiers of serially-numbered Refractor in the product.

Purple Refractor - 1 - Adam Wainwright # 017 / 199

Here is my other colored Refractor from Box #1. Another card for the trade stack.

Bowman Black Collection - 1 - Mac Williamson # 06 / 25

I guess this would be considered the big hit out of these two boxes. The seeding for these autographs is 1:2,565 Hobby packs, so they are pretty rare. They are also apparently quite prone to damage. The corners and edges are all a little bit imperfect, and one edge on the back looks like it may have been deformed a bit by the cutting process. I've read similar complaints about this particular insert online and in the galleries Topps puts up on the Bowman Facebook page, so this appears to be a common problem with the Bowman Black Collection cards. As far as things outside of condition go, I guess this is a pretty good card to pull from a pack of Bowman Chrome. Not very good for set collectors, though, because packs with a Bowman Black card in them don't have any other cards inside. Some of the prices on these things are a little ridiculous, so it would have been nice to get one out of a pack that was in decent shape. I would feel a little guilty trying to sell this one, even if I were careful to outline the flaws it has.