Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 2002 Bowman Baseball
Much like today’s version of the product, 2002 Bowman Baseball focuses mainly on the prospects. Of the 440 cards in the set, the first 110 feature veterans and have a red border. The last 330 cards in the base set are blue bordered and include a mix of prospects and rookies.
There are no insert sets to chase after in this set, just Gold parallels, autographs and relic cards. Today’s Bowman boxes guarantee an autograph, but back in 2002 the only guarantee was either an autograph or a relic card.
At the top of each box of 2002 Bowman Baseball you find a lone silver pack with a redemption card for an uncirculated first year card.
All you had to do to claim your card was register on thePit.com and enter your pin number. At the time, the site was owned by Topps. You were assigned a card at random. It was announced that just 672 copies of each uncirculated card were produced.
The list of the 110 players chosen to have uncirculated cards did not end up being all that impressive. There were a few big names, though, including Joe Mauer, David Wright and Jose Bautista. Unfortunately, I was 17-years late in opening this one.
2002 Bowman Baseball Box Break
Cards per pack: 10
Packs per box: 24
Price paid: $24
Shop for 2002 Bowman Baseball boxes on eBay.
Pack 1 highlights:
Carlos Delgado, Andy Pettitte, Roy Oswalt, David Wright RC & Justin Wayne Gold Parallel (one per pack)
Pack 2:
Dennis Tankersley Futures Game Autograph Relic (1:196 packs). A 38th round draft choice of the Red Sox in 1998, Tankersley was traded to the Padres in June, 2000. He was selected to pitch in the Futures Game during the 2001 season, a season in which he had a 1.98 ERA.
Tankersley would go on to pitch in just 27 major league games, including a lone start in 2003. In that start, Tankersley would walk four batter, give up three hits and surrender seven earned runs without recording a single out.
Pack 3:
J.D. Drew, Todd Helton, Carlos Pena & Xavier Nady Gold
Pack 4:
Adrian Gonzalez, Jonny Gomes RC & Deivi Mendez Gold
Pack 5:
Kevin Brown, Jorge Posada, Orlando “O Dog” Hudson & Matt Parker Gold RC
Pack 6:
Jeff Bagwell, Magglio Ordonez, 2003 AL Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa & Brandon Duckworth Gold
Pack 7:
Josh Hamilton, Joe Mauer RC & Nick Johnson Gold
Pack 8:
Matt Holliday & Jerry Hairston, Jr. Gold
Pack 9:
Ryan Madsen & Francisco Liriano Gold RC
Pack 10:
Jose Bautista RC & Grant Balfour Gold
Pack 11:
Jeff Kent & Michael Floyd Gold
Pack 12:
Alex Rodriguez, Brett Myers & Phil Nevin Gold
Pack 13:
Justin Morneau & Shayne Wright Gold RC
Pack 14:
So Taguchi RC & Terrance Hill Gold RC
Pack 15:
Scott Rolen & Mike Piazza Gold
Pack 16:
Adrian Beltre & Ramon Moreta Gold
Pack 17:
Angel Pagan RC & Jose Ortiz Gold
Pack 18:
Grady Sizemore, Mark Prior & Jeff Lincoln Gold
Pack 19:
Nomar Garciaparra & Keith Ginter Gold
Pack 20:
Jimmy Rollins & Gary Cates, Jr. Gold RC
Pack 21:
Freddie Money RC (no relation to Eddie Money) & Troy Glaus Gold
Pack 22:
Jake Mauer RC (Jake couldn’t quite keep up with his younger brother, Joe. Jake hit .256 over five minor league seasons), Carl Crawford & Scott Wiggins Gold RC
Pack 23:
Derek Jeter, Craig Biggio, Johnny Damon, Ken Griffey, Jr., Greg Maddux & Grant Balfour Gold
Pack 24:
Eric Byrnes & Chris Duffy Gold RC
Lastly, the Joe Mauer card back. High baseball draft picks don’t always pan out. But it’s safe to say this choice worked out well for the Twins. Another interesting point from this card back is the source of the facsimile autographs featured on the fronts of the cards, “Facsimile signature is as appears on original (Rookie) Topps contract.” That is something I did not know.
This was a fun break. I always enjoy pulling Rookie Cards of big-name players. Here, I got Joe Mauer, David Wright and Jose Bautista. The autograph I pulled probably isn’t worth much, but it was still a fun pull. I have always appreciated the Futures Game relic cards, as you know exactly which game the relic is from. That is rare in today’s hobby.
At just $24, I would grab another box of 2002 Bowman Base. Next time around I would be hoping to pull some better Gold parallels as most in this box were duds.
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Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
