First Look - 2016 Bowman

Walked into Target today after work to see if they had the new Bowman, it's been on eBay for days and a bunch of people have been posting it early over on Twitter. I walked in and they had it all, loose packs, blasters, 3-packs you name it. Gypsy Queen seemed like it came about a week late at my store so it was nice to pick some up on release date this time.

I opted for a rack pack, six bucks for some retail crack? Sure.

This was the "hit" of the pack a refractor #''d/499. Kyle Tucker was a first rounder last year but not somebody I collect so if your interested let me know. 

Here's the backs. The design reminds me of a better looking 2015 Topps football.

The lone insert of the pack, a Top 100 of Cardinals LHP Marco Gonzales. This one's headed west.

The design of the veterans is a little different from the prospects as seen here. I like it, my favorite part of these is that there is NO foil. Look at it it's beautiful, I'm sure everyone will hate these though.

Chrome Prospects as usual, I like the prospects design way better that the veterans.

In a rare feat, 11 percent of the pack were Braves. I'm used to zero. Typical Bowman cards here with 2 right handed teenage hurlers. Been listening to some Rome games this year and Soroka has been lights out, while Touki has been wild.

Last few are base paper prospects that don't have homes. save them from being boxed away today!

Thanks for reading, Go Bolts!

Bowman Draft Mega Mail Day + Free Jocs

Signed up for 2 different box breaks of Bowman Draft on Instagram,  in one I had Atlanta, Toronto, Tampa Bay & Milwaukee. In the other I just picked up the Braves. 

I didn't hit any autos or even a refractor so I guess this die cut was my hit of the 2 boxes. A cool card of 2 guys I collect.

I stopped by the post office on the way home from work and dropped off 5 PWEs and a bubble mailer to other bloggers so I guess getting home to a full mailbox was good cardboard karma.

I won't show every card but I got all the Braves base cards and 3 Chromes. I really like the look of the sky blue refractors this year and was hoping for one of those but such is life. 

Blake Snell was the main reason I signed up for the Rays. I'm a sucker for lefties and this kid vlew blew thru the minors last year and looks to be the real deal. May have to start a PC of the kid, my first Rays player collection if I decide to do so. 

The guy that did the breaks threw this auto of Shae Simmons in since I bought so many teams and didn't really hit anything, nice guy. 

This is my first auto of "Baby Kimbrel". Hopefully the young right hander recovers from TJ and comes back to help out the Atlanta bullpen next year. I actually caught his major league debut in 2014 down in Miami and he looked good. 

I grabbed this off eBay for six bucks after the breaks and it showed up today as well. The third of the Braves 3 first round picks this year, Soroka is a big Canadian 17 year old who impressed in the Minors last year. 

Won this guy for 99 cents, my fifth auto of Folty and my first relic of his #'d/99

This pair of Joc rookies were included with the Folty for some reason,  if any of you Dodger collectors need one or both just let me know. 

If not that's ok too, I kinda like the kid.

 Well that's all folks, there were 2 PWEs from bloggers in the picture above but I'll let them shine on their own in another post. Thanks for reading. 

More Stadium Club plus a new LCS

Picked up another rack pack of Stadium Club at Target yesterday because I have a problem:

I really like how the black & white cards look, I may not go for a whole set build but will probably at least try to get all the B&W cards in the set.

The great photos keep coming, I love "live ball" shots of either the ball out of the pitchers hand or off the hitter's bat like in this shot of Big Mac. Just got done watching Inning 11 of Ken Burns' Baseball and it was depressing watching McGwire's testament to Congress.

My first couple of Braves out of the way. Julio and Ron Gant

Miggy insert here. I have to say the rack packs are a better way to complete the base set since they only come with 1 insert to 11 base cards at least in my experience.

Went into a card shop over in Lakeland I had never been to before and a guy was opening packs of Stadium Club out of a hobby box, was chatting with him and he threw me this Freeman base card, he got six packs and pulled both autos out of the box a Chris Sale (Lakeland boy) and a Piazza /25

He grabbed a single pack of 2015 Prizm and gave me both these Freemans out of the pack, he pulled another auto - David Justice. Guy had the hot hand.

Being a little low on funds I was browsing singles/dollar bins and came up with this Max Fried auto from 2013 Bowman Inception for 5 bucks. Will definitely be going back to the store in the future though.

Mail Bag: Frickin' Lasers!

 Saw a lot of Chipper cards on Ebay the other day, most of which I didn't have and put a $0.99 bid in. A few days later I had won so for $3.32 with shipping I got a nice stack of new cards of which I only had one. 

This laser cut card I'm sure was a technological masterpiece in 1996.

I had never seen any of these 1995 Pinnacle Clear Shots before this one. Pretty cool card that scanned terribly.

Some sparkly Bowman from '93, '94 & '95. I got 2 of the card on the left if anybody needs it.

The Starquest was the only card I already had out of the whole lot. Collector's Choice was all I could afford with my allowance as an 11 year old and I think 1999 was the last year I bought cards for a long time according to the huge 10 year gap in my collection.

Some nice looking Pinnacle prospect cards, my second ever "Emotion" card and the Topps top prospects I've always wanted but never wanted to pay "book" for are all mine now! 8 year old me is ecstatic.

Closing out this Chipper bomb with the great photography of Stadium Club.

Flea market / '91 Bowman

Got the first 3 at the flea market today, I'll collect anything Deion but this is my favorite so far with him going from Brave to Falcon.The Glavine I had to grab for the throwback uni and I think that might actually be my first Don Sutton looking to start a PC of him as he's my favorite announcer.

The Bowmans are just my favorites from my binder of that set, not going to compete this set so if there's any cards your looking for let me know. The Griffey is really off center and the Larkin Gold bats are only like half filled in with foil.

Thanks for looking