2010 Bowman Platinum MLB
Per Box Items:
24 packs per box
5 cards per pack
2 Chrome Prospect Autographs
1 Autographed Relic
The standard sized cards feature a full color action shot of the player. The card fronts are bordered on all sides and have a graphic frame around the player. The set logo, player name and team name are all centered along the bottom. The fronts of the prospect cards have the player shot superimposed on a silver background. There is no graphic frame around the player and only a bottom border. The card backs are photo-less for both the base set and Prospect cards. The backs list basic biographical information, 2009 and career best statistics and brief player debut highlights and and a highlight of a moment that happened on the same date in baseball history. Both the card fronts and backs are very glossy. The fronts have a metallic, but not chrome finish to them. The backs are trimmed in the team's primary color.
What I pulled:
124 unique cards - no duplicates
67/100 base set cards = 67% of the base set
49/50 Prospect cards = 98% of the prospect set
3 refractor base cards
4 refractor prospect cards
0 prospect autographs
1 autographed relic
1 redemption
Base card front and back:
The Inserts:
Base refractor #/999 Cabrera, Pence
Base Gold refractor #/539 Kemp
Prospect refractor #/999 Chapman, Heathcott, Sano
Prospect green refractor #/499 Team USA Dickerson
The Hits:
Auto/Relic refractor Team USA #/740 Andrew Maggi
Redemption - Lonnie Chisenhall - BONUS - Refractor Autograph
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2010 Bowman Platinum is a tale of two sets. The perfect collation yielded almost complete sets of the base cards (1-100) and the Prospect set (PP1-PP50) I did actually pull the entire Team USA Collegiate National team PP29-PP5. The simple clean card design does make for attractive looking cards. The high gloss takes fingerprints and smudges easily though. I guess technically I was only shorted one prospect auto because of the redemption card. However the redemption card does say "BONUS" on it. The thicker card stock refractors do not say "refractor" on the back and do not seem as vibrant as the thinner refractors. They do have the same numbering (#/999) on them though. Maybe this is an unadvertised parallel? The hit says "multi-color relic patch" on the back of the card. It looks like a single color regular swatch to me though.
The Bottom Line:
I give 2010 a wait shop around rating. It will be very easy to complete both the base and prospect/team USA sets with just one box and a few trades. 2010 Bowman Platinum is also a prospectors dream. Do some research first to see if Topps will replace missing hits or if future boxes correct the quality control problems.
The Final Score:
Final Ratings (Out of 5):
Base set collect-ability: 4/5
Big-hit Hunter: 3/5
Prospector Hunter:5/5
Overall Design: 4/5
Fun: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Re-buy: 4/5
Overall Quality: 3/5
Overall: 32/40 (80% = B)
As always I am offering base and insert cards to members of The Bench for a SASE
Thanks to Topps for making this review possible!
Tal
