Bowman Platinum 2011 Baseball: 4 Packs

I picked up 4 packs of Bowman Platinum 2011 baseball during my boxing day shopping spree. I had never purchased this product before and had not bought Bowman baseball cards since the early 90's. The packs were on sale but were regularly priced at $10 each. This is the same price point as the NHL Artifacts cards and I figured the Platinum product should produce some good results because of this. I was only somewhat right.

In all I pulled 6 hits, consisting of 2 parallel cards, 3 prospects and one auto redemption card. I also pulled 3 rookie cards, none of which were serial numbered and are part of the base set.

The base cards are printed on a slightly thicker than average paper stock that is roughly half the thickness of the Ultimate NHL cards. The backs have a clear design with a hefty amount of text that doesn't read like a book. The number on the back is placed within a red bubble on regular cards and green ones for rookies, which is helpful since the only other difference between base and rookie is that there is a small RC printed on the front. The front of the base and rookie cards is slightly glossy with a silvery sheen that makes the photos pop! The backgrounds are blurred to allow the player to stand out, and each player is featured in an action shot. The front graphics are isolated to the bottom 1/5 of the card and are very clear and the palyer's name is printed in a reflective silver over top a dark and non-reflective background. Overall these are excellent looking base cards and would make an outstanding looking set.

I pulled three prospects subset cards, all of which where printed with chrome fronts. The design is almost identical to the base cards except that there is more text and no stats on the backs. I also pulled two parallel cards, one of which is a prospects parallel. This parallel is of Yasmani Grandal and is dubbed a X-Fractor, which fall 1 in 4 packs. The second parallel is a gold base card, which is identical to the base cards except that the front has a gold tint. Gold variation cards fall 1 in 5 packs. None of the parallels or prospects I pulled were serial numbered.

The final hit of the 4 packs is a Trevor Bell auto relic card base; I believe this will be a signed jersey card. This came as a redemption card, so hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the card to arrive in the mail. This is also the first redemption I've pulled from a Topps product (Bowman is produced by Topps).

Compared to the 4 packs of Artifacts that I opened, the Bowman product was much weaker. However, I still came out with 3 rookies and an auto. I'll be trying my hand at this product again if not just for grabbing a few more of the excellent looking base cards.