When Bowman Sterling first crossed over to Football back in 2008, I was less than thrilled with the way the price tag translated over to a sport where prospecting wasnt as familiar. The design was also pretty suspect in many cases, as it was during a time where Topps high end was well below where it needed to be.

Here are some of the cards already up:

2013 Bowman Sterling Eddie Lacy Gold Refractor Patch Auto

2013 Bowman Sterling EJ Manuel Gold Refractor Auto

2013 Bowman Sterling Andrew Luck Black Refractor Auto

2013 Bowman Sterling Montee Ball Auto Patch Prism Refractor

2013 Bowman Sterling Geno Smith Base Auto RC

Since that time, the design element for Sterling has turned around significantly, but the price tag remains one of the least bang for your buck available. With a class like this, the cards might look cool, but it is going to be VERY hard to make up the cost of a pack, let alone a box, with some of these hits.

I was pretty skeptical of how this year’s design would turn out, as it is obvious now seeing the cards why the sell sheet would be difficult to create. There seems to be a lot of textured backgrounds and refractors that play into the chrome stock used for the cards, most of which looks awesome.

However, this entire product’s potential is diminished due to the choice to have sticker autos instead of on card. Topps almost markets Bowman sterling as 6 pack style boxes per master box, but due to the configuration it still feels like a 260 dollar box of sticker autos. That should never happen. On top of that, Topps has said before that the use of memorabilia autos cant occur as likely within the timeframe, but we are seeing on card chrome patch autos as early as next week.

I like the idea of a product like this, if we didnt have similarly structured releases like Finest and Platinum, which contain basically the exact same content for less than half the price. Do the cards look to be better than most of what has been released this year from their competitors? No doubt. Is it worth going out and spending the money on some of these hits? Yes. Should you go out and buy a box? Not a chance.