Product Review: 2013 Bowman Baseball Hobby Jumbo packs

This will be the first year in many that we haven't bought a box of 2013 Bowman. This isn't to say we don't like the product, it's just that we have decided to go a different route with it and change it up from year's past.

To give a different perspective of buying within the hobby, we decided to buy two Hobby Jumbo packs from our local card shop. Luckily for us they had broken open a Jumbo box for packs just recently and had sold only 3 packs from the box so far.

Now when buying a box of cards you have the known aspect to the assortment of parallel cards you will receive and have the given (in this case) 3 autographs per box. Buying single packs from a box your odds have taken a dive and become less precise as to what you will pull due to multiple factors.

One of those factors are to do with missing packs from the box. Unless they are ripped at the store you will have no idea what that person(s) received in their packs. In this case three packs were missing from the 12 pack box and for all we knew all three autographs were in those packs. In this specific case the owner didn't see the packs opened and didn't know the person who bought the packs.

This to us was perfect and fit in with what we wanted to write about in this piece. The unknowns within the Hobby on buying packs from an opened box. We could have picked another product like Topps Series 1 or Tribute but decided on Bowman a few months ago for a couple of reasons. One being that this is the first Rookie and Prospect Crop of the year in one product. Some of these prospects could turn into a Trout or Harper one day way down the road. The second factor is that you should receive 2-3 parallel cards in each pack along with the chance of hitting an autographed card.

As we know holding onto Prospects for years after the products have been released is something you have to train yourself to do. It's not easy to keep them stored away in your card box for the next 3-5 years in hopes for them to become a superstar. There is great reward in doing so, but again not for everyone.

So here are our results from our two packs of 2013 Bowman Baseball Jumbo Hobby packs:

Pack #1:
Base: 15 (Wright, Pujols, Stanton)
Prospects: 8
Prospects Chrome: 5
Gold Base Parallel: 1 - Brandon Belt Gold
Blue Base Parallel: 1 - Bryce Harper Blue /500
Mini Refractor 1 - Daniel Cocino
Prospect Challenge Code: 1

Pack #2:
Base: 15 (Ortiz, McCutchen, Ryu RC, Braun)
Prospects: 8
Prospects Chrome: 5
Gold Base Parallel: 1 - Alex Gordon
Base Ice Parallel: 1 - Carlos Ruiz
Base International: 1 - Kris Hall
Autograph: 1 - Christian Bethancourt Base Auto Prospect Redemption

We did very well on two Jumbo packs pulling the Blue Harper and the Bethancourt Redmeption autograph. Overall the design of 2013 Bowman is clean and simple with a very similar back to the cards compared to the 2012 edition. The Chrome Prospects are nice with the white standing out on the Chrome finish. Ice is back again this year and not looking old at all. This technology is very sharp and really look great in the parallel's we've seen. The Added touch of the Mini Chrome Refractors are great. Everyone loves mini's and these will be no exception.

In our 1st pack we received a code card for the Prospect Challenge which is one of the programs Topps has with online codes to win prizes. The one thing about these is that this counts as one of your 32 cards in the packs. Personally would have liked to have seen another parallel in the pack instead of this card, so if you are ripping single packs from a box keep this in mind. This doesn't impact the box buying group as much because of the amount of cards you come away with but will make a difference to the single pack rippers.

Single pack buying is not something we do regularly but in the case of Jumbo packs it's a good bet to make. Jumbo packs always deliver something decent in your packs.This doesn't mean you'll see autographs in everyone but you should come away with decent parallel's. In our first pack with the Harper, it could have been another player (superstar or not) and it might have been called a bust for collectors. If you look at that pack with the parallel's including the Mini Chrome Refractor, it turns out it's a decent pack overall. Typically Jumbo packs run in the $12-15 range depending on where you buy from. So looking at it this way with a $15 pack you paying just under .50 cents per card for this 2013 Bowman Jumbo pack. Not too bad if you think of the parallel's and the chance of pulling a nice prospect card or two.

Just as much as we suggest buying Jumbo Boxes we suggest picking up Jumbo Packs as well. More for your value and you should hit something nice out of them.
As always, most cards we pull in our breaks we send into our COMC account. If you are interested in any of the cards we have mentioned please send us an e-mail at packgambler@gmail.com

Thanks again and remember to visit us at www.packgambler.com