While 2017 was the year of Judge, it didn’t start quite as early as it has this year.  2018 has seen Ohtani being even more sought after.  We saw it a bit with Heritage, but now with the Bowman release, Ohtani-mania is in full effect.  Normally, we’d have a hobby box to break, but we’re seeing prices double and nearly triple the normal price around release time.  That’s way too out of hand, for what is essentially hoping for the lottery ticket of an Ohtani autograph.   That one card is the only way to really have a chance at getting value out of a box.

 

Retail is still the regular price, if you can find it.  As a result of Hobby being so expensive, even retail is getting scooped up and often resold at a higher price.  You have a lot tougher odds on inserts and parallels, but for many, retail is going to be the only option to open Bowman packs this year.

There are other rookies available as usual in Bowman, but they all seem overshadowed this year.  This release is pretty standard fare for Bowman at this point.   You have a 100 card base set, featuring some veterans and some rookies, along side the prospects paper and chrome insert sets, which is the meat of the release.  These feature 150 prospects.   Some are well known, and some really aren’t.   I guess that’s part of the beauty of Bowman.  You won’t really know how good a release it was for a few years.  Which future stars may be hiding in this release?

This blaster box features eight packs of ten cards each.  There are no guaranteed hits, and any chance at one is pretty remote.  If you’re looking for a lottery ticket, this isn’t a very good bet.  If you’re looking for set building, it’s not too bad, though.

This box contained:

33 Base (33% of set)
23 Prospects (15.3% of set)
1 Prospects Green
16 Chrome Prospects (10.7% of set)
1 Trending
1 Trending Green Refractor
1 Bowman Birthdays
2 Bowman Scouts’ Top 100
1 Roy Favorites
1 Talent Pipeline