Friday, October 24, 2008

2008 Baseball Cards in Review - Bowman Chrome

When I posted my review of 2008 Bowman the other day, I realized that I didn't have any 2008 Bowman Chrome cards except for the Chrome Prospects inserted into the regular Bowman packs. So I bought 5 packs today. These cards aren't cheap. 3-card packs go for $2.99. That's right, a dollar a card. The Chrome cards follow the same basic design as the Bowman, with veteran player cards bordered in red and rookie cards bordered in green. I somehow managed to pull the Fukudome variation cards. The one card is red-bordered and he's wearing a uniform which says Japan on the front. Perhaps this is from the 2006 World Baseball Classic games.

On the other card, he's in a Cubs uniform and the card is a Rookie Card. Both cards are numbered 155 and feature the same back. His 2007 Japanese stats are given. Based on what I've read on the blogs, Topps has had a few gimmick Fukudome cards this year. I guess this is another example.

In just five packs, I wasn't expecting much. I didn't get any color variation cards, X-Fractors (which I really like) or SuperFractor cards (I like those too). I did get two Refractor cards so all was not lost. And they were of players I collect, Tom Glavine and Jim Thome. In fact, these were the cards which were of players I collect. No Phillies or Astros either.

I'm showing Glavine's Bowman card as well for comparison. This year, Topps Chrome featured different photographs then on regular Topps cards. But the Bowman Chrome has the same photos as Bowman. The facsimile signature on the Chrome card is different. Looking back over past Glavine cards I see that Topps has used both signatures in the past. The two cards are also numbered differently as the Chrome set has fewer cards. You can also see the the Chrome cards have a white border instead of the black border on the regular cards.

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