By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The auctions have ended, the numbers have been crunched. The ranges have been tabulated and the OPG has been posted.

The 2012 Bowman baseball card set from Topps has arrived on Beckett.com with the newest prospects, some of baseball’s hottest rookies and more. Let’s take a look inside the numbers crunched by Beckett Baseball Senior Market Analyst Brian Fleischer  — and see even more — after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did you miss the recent Box Busters episode? Catch it right here.

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Total value … of all priced cards in product: $29,124.35.

Average price … of all priced cards: $10.45.

Highest-priced card … Bowman Chrome Rookie Autographs Gold Refractors #209 Yu Darvish ($1,300-$1,500)

Other notable cards:
– Darvish’s first Bowman Chrome autograph cards.
– The super-hot Bowman Lucky Redemption cards 1, 2 and 3.
– Bowman AFLAC Autographs.
– Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs of Jackie Bradley Jr., Josh Bell, Gerrit Cole, Danny Hultzen, Anthony Rendon, Dante Bichette Jr., Oscar Taveras and Xander Bogaerts.
– Bowman Chrome Rookie Autographs of Jesus Montero and Matt Moore.

Fleischer’s Focus: Fans of Bowman will not be disappointed with this year’s offering. While much of the product is almost identical to previous year’s Bowman products, there are plenty of new chase elements like the Darvish autographs, the Lucky Redemptions and the Debut Golden Contract. Almost half of the Prospect/Rookie autographs are priced at $20 or more, so there’s a pretty good chance that collectors will pull top prospect’s signature.

Olds’ Opinion: Bowman is a hobby staple — if not THE hobby staple — these days, so it can seemingly do no wrong whether it’s a strong crop of rookies and prospects or not. This year is looking pretty darn strong.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The auctions have ended, the numbers have been crunched. The ranges have been tabulated and the OPG has been posted.

The 2011 Limited baseball card set from Panini America has arrived on Beckett.com with the prospects, legends and more all in tow. Let’s take a look inside the numbers crunched by Beckett Baseball Senior Market Analyst Brian Fleischer  — and see even more — after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Total value … of all priced cards in product: $9,423.25.

Average price … of all priced cards: $14.43.

Highest-priced card … 2011 Limited Hall of Fame Gear #1 Ty Cobb/25 ($150-$250)

Notable card … Tigers catcher and All-Star Alex Avila’s first certified autograph can be found here. It’s limited to 49 copies and has been a surprisingly strong seller.

Other notable cards:
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #1 Josh Bell/149
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #10 Trevor Bauer/99
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #12 Archie Bradley/99
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #26 Danny Hultzen/99
– 2011 Limited Greats Signatures #14 Pete Rose/30
– 2011 Limited Match-Ups Signatures #2 Gerrit Cole/Josh Bell/25
– 2011 Limited Match-Ups Signatures #4 Archie Bradley/Trevor Bauer/25

Fleischer’s Focus: While the product may seem like it’s loaded with prospect autographs, there many attainable hidden gems to be found from game-used cards from Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb to autographs from top sellers like Frank Thomas, Will Clark and Ken Griffey Jr.

Olds’ Opinion: Limited’s lower price point (compared to Prime Cuts) makes it a bit more fun, but it seems that some cards are still a bit soft. To me, that’s an invitation to buy right now as there is plenty available. The singles route on cards could be fun for some sets in the product — check out sets such as the Limited Gamers for something different, affordable and collectable.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The highly anticipated 2012 Bowman set arrives next week packing Yu Darvish, Bryce Harper, Yoenis Cespedes and more inside its packs.

But what’s outside of the packs — or at least wrapping them — matters, too, as there’s a wrapper redemption for the product this year.

Topps detailed the particulars of the program on Wednesday, and it’s one that has a limited supply available — and a new form of Refractor is included, meaning they could disappear fast.

For each 24 hobby or seven HTA jumbo wrappers sent into Topps, collectors will receive a five-card pack of Blue Wave Refractors — some of which will be signed.

Some of the signers will include Josh Bell, Dante Bichette Jr., Gerrit Cole and Matt Purke — meanwhile there only will be 10,000 packs of the Blue Waves made.

Topps will update the remaining quantity of packs available on a regular basis through its Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Wrappers should be sent to:

Bowman Blue
P.O. Box 2008
Duryea, PA 18642

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.