If you have followed this site, you will know I love Bowman baseball cards. Recently, I have also been upset with the outrageous hobby box prices on 2020 Bowman. Since 2018, it’s been retail or bust when it comes to Bowman.
This year’s product was delayed due to COVID, and today (May 22, 2020) is the official release date, though blaster boxes began showing up at retail earlier this week. I made a run to a couple of my Target stores on Wednesday and neither store had been stocked by the vendor. But…on Thursday afternoon I found five blaster boxes!
Before I get to the box breaks, here’s why I think Bowman retail is a better buy than Bowman hobby boxes. For those that don’t closely follow the hobby, retail is only sold in stores such as Wal-Mart and Target, while hobby is only available online and at baseball card hobby shops. Sometimes hobby shops will sell the retail boxes, but hobby boxes are not available in retail stores.
Why Am I Buying Sealed Boxes?
Since I’m on a Cubs baseball card collector, why am I buying boxes? I love Bowman, and it’s really the set that brought me back into the baseball card hobby in 1998. It’s fun for me to open boxes. I keep the Cubs, sell the hits, and trade off other cards. In fact, most of the below cards sold within hours on eBay, and I already included one card from my box in a trade package that was mailed out today.
2020 Bowman Cubs Baseball Cards
First things first I need to show off the Cubs baseball cards. I pulled four Kris Bryant base cards in the five blaster boxes. That’s the thing with blaster boxes…sometimes you get a run. That run can be really good, or not so good. Blaster boxes come in cases of 16 boxes, and the collation tends to run the same, so when you open a pack and see a certain player you will likely see the same base cards within that pack.
The Cubs checklist in 2020 Bowman saw nothing surprising with the same run of players we come to expect: Kris Bryant and Javier Baez are the veterans in the set. Nico Hoerner, Adbert Alzolay, and Robel Garcia are the rookies in the base set. Cubs prospects in the set are Brailyn Marquez, Aramis Ademan, Miguel Amaya, and Brennen Davis.
Since there are only 100 cards in the veteran checklist, I am satisfied with the five Cubs selections. We’ve seen the four prospects in previous Bowman releases so it would have been nice to see a 1st Bowman card of a prospect. I was also disappointed that Bowman used the exact same picture of Brennen Davis as they used for his Bowman Draft card.
In all, 18 Cubs cards were added from these five blaster boxes. It was a nice mix of paper base, chrome and even an Adbert Alzolay insert card. Now, let’s get to the hits.
Luis Robert is a Rookie AND Prospect
When Topps released the 2020 Bowman checklist at the beginning of the week one thing was quickly noticed. Luis Robert appeared twice. He had a rookie card logo in the veteran base set (despite not having played in a MLB game), and a prospect card.
Sure enough, Topps did not make a typo on the checklist. Luis Robert does in fact have a rookie card and a prospect card in the same 2020 Bowman set.
2020 Bowman Rookies
The 2020 Bowman rookie class is pretty impressive with the aforementioned Luis Robert. Also in the set are Yordan Alvarez, Bo Bichette, and Gavin Lux.
Aristedes Aquino had a hot run during the end of the 2019 MLB season and he also has a rookie card in this set along with Cubs rookie Nico Hoerner mentioned above.
2020 Bowman Inserts
Bowman always has some good insert sets. In recent years they have chromed up past designs and put current players on them. This year commemorates the 1990 Bowman set and includes players like Pete Alonso.
Another set is Spanning the Globe. Luis Robert is here representing Cuba. I pulled two of these cards and they quickly sold on eBay.
The Hits
You have read this far and are probably wondering….did I pull any Jasson Dominguez? The answer is no. Not a single card in the five blaster boxes. As I mentioned before sometimes you get a decent run with the collation and other times not. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the Dominguez run in my boxes.
However, I did pull three serial numbered cards out five blasters, and I consider that a win. I also pulled a Bobby Witt Jr. chrome and it sold a few hours after listing for $15, so that’s another win. I pulled a purple paper parallel of Twins prospect pitcher Jordan Balazovic numbered 26/250. That’s a lot P’s. Prospect pitcher purple paper parallel. Say that quickly five times.
Another paper parallel is from Indians rookie pitcher Logan Allen. The green is numbered 74/99.
My final hit came from the Bowman Scouts Top 100 insert set. This is my favorite insert from Bowman each year. It’s a 100-card set that features the top 100 prospects in baseball. Atlanta Braves pitcher Kyle Muller is ranked the 68th top prospect and this card is numbered 6/99.
2020 Bowman For Sale
I’ll be taking a look around the area this weekend in search of more Bowman retail cards. If you are interested in any of the cards, check out my eBay Store. When you buy three or more items from my store you receive an automatic 10% discount at checkout.