gone platinum

So Bowman Platinum dropped today. Well, for some lucky retail stores, it was yesterday.

One of those lucky stores was my hometown Target. While on a small grocery run, I stopped by the card aisle and lo and behold they had blasters of the stuff:

Yeah, that.

Four cards per pack is a little light, equalling just 32 cards for $20. The ratio just screams unfair but it is a slightly higher end product than regular Bowman.

Well, I'm too lazy to actually scan regular cards but I'm sure someone up here will. I can say that I don't like the design as much as I did last year but it's not horrible.

My blaster (maybe the 5th or eight packs) did contain this:

Yep, a prospect auto of a guy I never heard of. That never happens in Bowman, so I was a little shocked.

Anyway, I checked eBay to see if he was selling and there was only one other of his cards up and it was ending in 2+ hours (and at $14.50 with 10 bids). I listed it anyway, with a buy it now of $25 (with free shipping!) and went off to eat dinner.

After eating I decided to check on the activity of that first auction and I noticed mine had sold within five minutes of me posting it. Not too shabby seeing as how even after fees and shipping it still payed for the blaster. The other one ended at $15.50. So either way, I win.

See? Bowman isn't all that bad...




(kidding, mostly)

ginter is a bust

I picked up a box of Ginter yesterday. I hadn't really planned on it but then I remembered I busted a box in '10 and '11, so I felt a little more obligated to grab one. Ok, so I didn't need to but the boxes I usually grab throughout the year are series 1, 2 and Update and Ginter. Although this year I did not pick up a series 2 box.

Anyway. The box was pretty run of the mill, nothing spectacular. I did manage to get most of the base cards I wanted, minus the Griffey and Aaron. I do still need a few Jays too although I did manage the Lowrie rookie plus a Harper rookie, so thats good.

Here are the hits:

The Young boys, oddly enough. Standard single color relics from Ginter

Plus a silk card of Brandon Phillips, numbered 02/10. I suppose this counts as my third hit even though it's not technically one. Oh well, thats Topps for you.

I'm not chasing a set, inserts or otherwise, so I have some cards for trade.

random pack break

While in Target yesterday, I perused the card aisle as usual.

Often times I'll check out the discounted packs and usually come up short but not this time.

Among the many packs of Twilight, Justin Bieber and various assorted 'dog tags' packs, I came across this:

Yep. A single random pack of 2007 Bowman Heritage. Quite odd. Where was this hiding?


Let's see what we got:

Ivan here is the only superstar of the pack. He had quite a career and I definitely see Cooperstown calling him.

Brandon Webb, a Travis Buck (looking very happy) rookie and Felipe Lopez.

Here are the two required prospects and I don't believe I've heard from either of them again. It is Bowman so I have to expect some no name players.

My shiny and somewhat thicker parallel, Chase Wright. Dunno if he went anywhere either although I feel I do know the name.


But the real highlight of the pack comes here:

A black bordered Nick Markakis. He's a young talent on a quite good Orioles team this year. This card is numbered 16/52 and apparently is a 1:97 packs pull. Not too shabby.

Take a look through the discount packs next time you're at Target, you never know what you'll find.