First look: 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Topps‘ next wave of Bowman products will arrive late this year — 2011 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects — packing yet another chance at a Bryce Harper autograph (this time Green) and plenty of this year’s top draft picks once they sign.
The Harper autograph will be limited to just 350 copies, while an autographed Relic — featuring a piece of his Futures Game jersey to be used soon — will be limited to just 69 copies when the product arrives on Nov. 23. That card also will be paralleled with a Red 1/1, a Green limited to five, a Gold limited to 25 and a Blue card limited to just 50.
The basic set will consist of 110 rookies in both Bowman and Bowman Chrome format with two Bowman cards, two Chrome cards, one parallel and two Futures Game stars or USA Baseball team members per pack. On the prospect side, the set will consist of 110 players including Future Stars and the 18 USA Baseball 16U team members.
Each 24-pack hobby box will include one Chrome autograph, while there will be USA Baseball autos inserted as bonus sigs. The autograph checklist will consist of 31 draft picks and young stars each with SuperFractors, printing plates, Red, Purple, Orange, Gold, Blue and standard Refractor versions.
Meanwhile, this product will include the first look at the 2011 USA Baseball 16U National Team — the youngest prospects found on licensed cardboard. In addition to autographs, these cards will be found as SuperFractors, printing plates and more with the most plentiful being standard Refractors at just 199 copies.
Read more and see more images after the jump.
The standard set will feature three parallels — Red 1/1s, printing plates, Blues (/499) — while the Chromes will have Canary Diamond 1/1s, SuperFractors, printing plates, Red, Orange, Gold, Blue and standard Refractors.
New for this series will be Futures Game Relics with jumbo patch versions limited to just five copies, Futures Game patches limited to one and MLB Logoman 1/1s as well. Also included will be Aflac All-American autographs, Topps 60th anniversary sigs and more.
The prospect checklist is largely TBD — many of the draft picks have not yet signed — but the Aflac autograph lineup so far includes Yordy Cabrera, Stetson Allie, Tony Walters, Braxton Lane, Jason Thompson and Kyrell Hudson.
Futures Game Relic players will include Harper, Manny Machado, Wil Myers, Mike Trout, Dayan Viciedo, Paul Goldschmidt and many others.
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.
Can’t wait to watch this fail as hard as 2011 Bowman did !
^^^ To the comment above. I don’t remember 2011 Bowman failing at all. It was a hot product and a great break.
Yep. 2011 Bowman made myself and a lot of other case flippers thousands of dollars with very little work. Product of the year for us.
Seriously Todd…2011 Bowman failed? What are you, an Upper Deck employee? It’s over – let it go.
[…] Harper, Manny Machado, Wil Myers, Mike Trout, Dayan Viciedo, Paul Goldschmidt and many others. First look: 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects | __________________ Shop for Sports Cards and Trading […]
While I can appreciate Topps wanting to end the suspense of what the format of this product will entail, I have to admit to being extremely disappointed in what I’m NOT seeing – the checklist. If you take a stroll down memory lane and recall their past solicitations for this product over the years, you will notice a disturbing trend – less information is revealed in advance as each year passes, leading us to this year’s offering, which reveals a total of 3 Prospect Autos (out of more than 30) and zero Prospect “base” cards. Topps is clearly banking on Draft’s reputation alone to sell out, which it obviously will, as this year’s draft crop is considered to be far-and-away the best in several years. Naturally I’ll be in the market for wax as I always am with this product, but I am crestfallen to see how Topps has gotten so complacent to the point that they know consumers will basically buy anything with the word “Draft” in it, despite the unknowns.
FYI — Chris, there will be 31 Prospect Autographs (according to the sell sheets), not 21.
bowman might be the only set left that is still good and pure (except get rid of the dumb inserts)
who care!!! bowman alway the best product in my list.. everybody alway complain but still they buy the product.. Why!!!! HaHa…
I don’t really collect Bowman because its far too confusing. Too many different sets and crossovers between packs, too many parallels, and the checklists are a complete fr’n mystery.
You can keep your Bowman.
P.s. Topps, I don’t appreciate getting $%^-condition cards from your ‘Giveaways’. THAT was MESSED-UP, big time!
The only thing that failed with Bowman are the comments by those who think it failed. A very lucrative product for me.
Semi-Newbie here…..was an avid collector years ago, and always was a fan of Bowman due to the prospects etc. Wanting to buy a box of this product, and wondering is it better to wait and grab a 2011 release, or jump on 2010 from last year. (if I can find it)
Then the debate of regular Bowman baseball or the Bowman “chrome” baseball,
Whats better to start collecting again?
Thanks
[…] will have autograph cards found in the previously announced 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects slated to arrive in November. The signers — so far as it promises more — include former UCLA star Trevor Bauer and […]
To Stefan: Go ahead a get a couple boxes of 2010 Draft. The auto checklist is absolutely stacked. Not to mention Strasburg, Heyward, Stanton, Ike Davis etc. rookies. I just broke one box and got an orange refractor auto of Kaleb Coward and a blue refractor of Ike Davis. Great product for the money. Plus, 2011 Draft still a ways away. However, I will be among those pre-ordering once the checklist comes out, which I expect to be stacked.
I hope they make the cards with the embossed print autos again, loved that, especially on the gold and chrome cards.