I said in a prior post that it takes a lot for a football collector like me to be interested in a baseball product.

All of that being said – I really like 2013 Bowman, both in terms of design and in terms of the fun it is to rip a box. Of course, the price has been consistently going up, but after getting the chance to rip some packs today, I had a blast.

So far, the biggest guys in the product you can pull is either Byron Buxton or Carlos Correa. However, those arent the only big hits as the colored refractors and colored refractor autos tend to sell for an absolute ton.

2013 Bowman Chrome Carlos Correa Orange Refractor Auto /25

2013 Bowman Chrome Taijuan Walker Purple Refractor Auto /10

2013 Bowman Chrome Byron Buxton Orange Refractor Auto /25

2013 Bowman Chrome Gregory Polanco Purple Refractor Auto /10

2013 Bowman Chrome Dylan Bundy Gold Refractor Auto /50

I made the trek over to Sports Cards Plus here in San Antonio and was able to pull one of these colored refractors that gets everyone fired up about a Chrome baseball set. Yordano Ventura is a Dominican Pitcher that should end up as a nice pen arm for the Royals down the road. You wouldnt expect a guy like that to be worth a lot, but when your fastball tops out at 99 MPH, prospectors want to get in early.

I also pulled Gregory Polanco’s auto, who could end up as an every day player for the Pirates down the road, but that was just a base one. The card should get around 25-35 bucks, and I was pretty satisfied to likely make back the money on the box easy.

I want to take the opportunity to reinforce my theory on spending a ton of money on these prospects, especially on the bigger guys who are already pushing 100 bucks for the base signature. There is always a chance these guys could end up as Mike Trout or a comparable rags to riches story, but that happens so few times that I am not sure how much I would wager.

All of that said, the Chrome technology Topps uses on these cards continues to be impressive, and I did not hear any complaints from any of the people in the store at all. This set continues to be the best product set of the year in most cases, and I dont see that changing for 2013.