Pack Preview: 2013 Bowman Baseball

This site uses eBay affiliate links in posts. By purchasing items from these links the site may earn money at no additional cost to you.

UPDATE: Checklist has now been posted for 2013 Bowman!

For baseball prospectors, Bowman is the product that introduces a lot of the names that fans will be seeing much of in the future. It also contains current stars and rookies that are are familiar to most. With 2013 Bowman the key elements that fans of this product love are back: Chrome stars, prospects and rookies. With 2013- Bowman is also celebrating its 65th birthday, and to celebrate, Topps has created a Blue Sapphire Refractor program.

In each 24-pack box fans of Bowman can expect 5-card packs. This will consist of two prospects, two Bowman Chrome prospects and one Base gold parallel. Each regular box will contain one autograph card as well. Each jumbo box will contain 12 packs in each box with sixteen Bowman Baseball Cards; eight Prospects; six Bowman Chrome Prospects; one Base Gold Parallel Card; and one Bowman’s Best Baseball. These should contain at least three, but may have extra autos.

Base cards will feature veterans and rookies and will feature State & Home town parallels and the color varieties with this breakdown:

• Gold-Bordered
• Blue Border- #/500
• Orange-Border-#/250
• Red-Border- 1/1
• Silver ice parallels- One per regular box, 2 per jumbo. Red ice (#/25), Purple Ice (#/10), White Ice (#/1) Hobby Only

Bowman Chrome rookie and prospect base and autos will feature similar parallels, with slight differences:

• Refractor- #/500
• Blue Ref.-#/250
• Gold red.- #/50
• Orange Wave ref.- #/25
• Purple Ref.- #/10 Prospect Auto only
• Red Ref.- #/5 Prospects will be Hobby Only
• SuperFractor- 1/1 Prospects will be Hobby Only
• Printing Plates- 1/1 Jumbo Only

Also included in 2013 Bowman will be Dual Franchise refractor autos; featuring two top prospects and numbered to 25 or less. The players from the Futures Game will have a presence with jersey relic cards from the 2012 Futures Game and will be numbered to 25.

The Ultimate Prospect Autograph card will feature up to 25 prospects on one card and be numbered to only five. That’s a lot of autographs to included.

There will also be an inclusion of AFLAC/Perfect Game HS All-American & Under Armour All-American Game autographs. These will be hobby only additions, but no numbering was stated at press time.

With 2013, Bowman will feature ‘Bowman’s Top 100 Prospects’. The Bowman scouts will help rank the top 100 players and feature them in this insert set. They will include Die-Cut refractors (#/99), Autographed Die-Cut X-Fractors (#/24), and Autographed Die-Cut Atomic Refractors (1/1).

Mini Cards will be making an appearance in Bowman as Chrome Refractors. They will be the ‘Cream of the Crop’ as they will highlight the top five prospects in each farm system. They will feature a Blue Parallel (#/250), Red Parallel (#/5) and Superfractor (1/1). Red and Supers being hobby only parallels.

Two of the continuity programs featured in 2013 Bowman will be the Blue Sapphire Program and the Bowman Black Collection. The Sapphire program will be featuring some of the top players of all time as they were originally featured on their original Bowman cards. The Bowman Black Collection will feature 25 subjects and have players signing in the favorite silver pen. These will all be numbered to only 25.

Since it’s Bowman’s birthday- some extra additions will be in 2013’s set. Oversized 1948 Autographed Bowman cards will be inserted as box loaders and numbered to 20. There will also be the return of the Bowman Golden Debut Contract. Each contract recipient will get an auto’d baseball from a top prospect and the grand prize winner will get a card in the 2014 Bowman release.

There will also be the Lucky 5 Redemption Program. Five different limited edition cards will be good for a special bonus card.

Lots to look forward to in this, the 65th anniversary of Bowman!