Disappointed in the new Bowman Chrome...

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bonzomoretti

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I'd like to know if anyone else feels the same way as I do about the new Topps product, 2010 Bowman Chrome.
I just bought a box from my local hobby shop, which I do for just about every new product, and paid $82 after New Jersey gets their cut. I buy 1 box from the local dude to help him stay in business. My contribution to the hobby I guess.
18 packs, 4 cars per pack equals 72 cards total out of this box. What did I get for my $1.14 per card? Yes, I got my 1 autograph, a Dan Tuttle of the Reds. After seeing the list of autos, if you don't get a Strasburg it doesn't seem worth the cost. Other than that, 4 common refractors (the best being Jorge Posada) that I didn't even realize were refractors until I saw the word "refractor" on the back of the card. Very hard to tell. The rest were base cards, the best card being a base Ken Griffey Jr. and the next best a Hanley Ramirez base card. Where are all the stars????? I did get 2 RC's, Heisey and Davis. Besides the lack of star cards and rookie cards, what makes this set worth the price if you don't get a Strasburg of some sort.
5 of the cards in the box were damaged by the machine and were sent back to Topps with a letter that expresses my dissappointment in this product. I don't know if they willl read it which is why I am posting this letter.
Maybe I got a bad box? It still is not worth $1.14 per card in my opinion, even if every card was a Albert Pujols or Alex Rodriguez...hmmm, I wonder if they are even in this set!
Thanks for the rant.
 
thats why i stay w/ retail blasters. 3 cards perpack got 2 blasters. 4 refracs base cards and one rc. got 1 auto some cuban prospect SS on the blue jays. when i buy hobby the best is bowman draft i think. just my 2 cents
 
I agree that the blasters and rack packs are better this year, but not by much. My hobby box was $65, but I got a $.99 auto and I think 6 refractors. One blue refractor at least, but not worth much unless you're a Peavy fan. Easy to see why everyone is staying away until the price drops.
 
I'm guessing most people buy boxes for the chance of hitting it big. Not getting your "money's worth" should almost be expected, if the big hits are seeded right. This is the very reason I kicked the pack habit. I was finding that spending that same money on things I wanted, without worrying about hitting it big, I was happier in the end. So I will never have a shot at a Babe Ruth cut auto, but then again the odds weren't great either.
 
Maybe it's just that I'm getting older and that I have a baby on the way, but for $80.00 I could get a decent lot of cards on ebay. Granted, I will not get a DNA relic in A & G, but what would I really do with that card anyway?

Thanks,

Frank
 
Use to buy at least a case of bowman chrome each year! That was about 5 years ago....now days I normally get anywhere from 3 to 6 boxes. I like the white borders of the bowman chrome first cards and the USA cards...Problems....about 5 of the 15 usa cards (my first three boxes) were oc 40/60 left to right. Autos card about one per box......but if you hit an auto USA card....theres the regular box hit somewhere in the box!! About one blue refractor per box...Did not pull any Superfractor..no surprise there! In my 19 years of collecting...only hit one Superfractor! Best regards, David
 
I don't get what the big deal is with Bowman Chrome year after year. 90% of the rookies in the set will be bagging groceries in 10 years but "prospectors" eat this stuff up. Personally,I think it's funny reading threads where these so-called "hobbyists" spend tons of money opening whole cases and whine because they can't make any money from the cards they pull.

I'll probably crack a box for the heck of it. Maybe I'll pull a nice Ike/Pujols and have the rest for tradebait but I don't see how people go nuts for this stuff.
 
Everyone has different goals....some are set collectors..players collectors.....insert collectors ...auto collectors...supercollectors...prospectors.....Best regards, David
 
I'm guessing most people buy boxes for the chance of hitting it big. Not getting your "money's worth" should almost be expected, if the big hits are seeded right. This is the very reason I kicked the pack habit. I was finding that spending that same money on things I wanted, without worrying about hitting it big, I was happier in the end. So I will never have a shot at a Babe Ruth cut auto, but then again the odds weren't great either.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The cost of the card you want is usually about the same price as a box, so I just go for the singles.
 
Everyone has different goals....some are set collectors..players collectors.....insert collectors ...auto collectors...supercollectors...prospectors.....Best regards, David

Yeah I know but as a collector,I can't see things from their point of view and I guess the same can be said of them regarding us collectors. I just can't see how people think they can make money ripping tons of product.
 
Everyone has good points here. I just don't see how you can make money when you are paying more per card than the bv will be of the cards. The only way is to hope you get a "biggie" that will pay for your box. The rest is useless. You only average 1 "biggie" per box and that could be anything from a Gold Refractor Rod Barajas to a Gold Refractor Albert Pujols. You get a common and you've wasted your $$$. This product just isn't worth it to me.
BTW, I had already purchased another box via Ebay 2 weeks ago (presale) which I got today...again, a gold common (Carlos Peguero) and a Jason Kipnis auto...what a waste. Someone please trade me some Mets for this sh...stuff!
 
I can certainly understand production issues. Someone posted about the cards being of poor quality. That is something that warrants a complaint. However, not getting the better cards from a box and only getting commons for the box or case pulls, especially if the seeded odds were all met, then it's just the same old story of the house winning most of the time.

Making money off cards is a byproduct of what was once just a fun hobby. In fact, those who can still make a living off of selling cards...I salute them. I would not have the desire to do it. I have daydreamed about having a card shop, but my intention is more to see what comes in off the street for sale than making money from it. I have watched countless deals stroll into card shops that I would have jumped on in seconds!!

I think if someone who is not making a living off selling cards is buying boxes and cases to turn a profit, they should seriously reconsider their intentions. Maybe it's time to do some day trading or something like that. The risks are so much greater than the rewards. Opening cards should be fun, not stressful. When you are worried about making your money back, it's time to consider a new hobby or at least stop buying boxes! Somehow, I think it is worse than losing your money outright. At least when I buy a lottery ticket and it loses, I expected my money to be gone. When I buy a box of cards, hoping for that great autograph and I get nothing buy a stack of junk cards nobody wants, I somehow feel more cheated. I feel that this stack of cards is somehow taunting me after my money is gone...laughing at me for being a fool! An ever present reminder that I just "wasted" my money. Yeah, a little extreme, but I had similar feelings of emptiness and that helped me kick my wax habit.

I bet if you polled people here who have in the past or are still buying packs regularly, you'll find that most people don't have too many major hits to speak of. I don't mean beating the odds a few times over the course of years, I am talking about someone who consistently pulls items that would more than make up for their initial investment and perhaps cover some other recent "losses". If you buy enough product, you'll eventually pull something worthy, but if you are not doing it regularly, you are probably diving deeper into the red.

I was never a major pack buyer once cards got expensive. I have never busted what I would consider a high end product. My single pack price limit was probably under $5 and I don't think I ever paid more than $100 for a box of anything, so I'm sure my pulls are even less comparable. I pulled an Arod auto out of Royal Rookies. I paid $12 for the box and it was years after the issue. I beat the odds and pulled the Rodriquez auto, which were either numbered to 10 or 25 (I don't remember now w/o looking). That is the best pack pull I have ever made! Nothing else comes close in over 20 years of buying packs and boxes since the chances of pulling something great post 1989. With the money I did spend, and remember I was not a high roller, I could have bought this card many times over and had cash to spare. I do miss it occasionally, but I am glad I am out.
 
Best thing to do is sit on the autos & rookies for a couple years unless they are hot now. I got an auto refractor a couple years ago that was a common and it booked for like $15-$20 and after this year it books for $100. It was Brendan Boesch of the Tigers.

Anytime you buy Bowman or Bowman Chrome you are taking a chance getting garbage.
 
I opened 4 boxes last night. Bad autos. Bad quality. They were similar to the 4 boxes of Topps Chrome I recently opened. Those were also very bad quality.

Many o/c cards.

Disappointing. I open a decent amount of all the chrome product each year. This year I skipped football and just bought a set on Ebay. It was half the cost of a box.

I might just start buying the sets, I hate to do it. I much rather build my sets. But the cost/quality issue seems to be getting worse.

Shawn
 
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