Every year, prospectors and team collectors look forward to the release of Bowman baseball, mainly because of the potential of pulling the top chase cards in the hobby. Low numbered parallels in the set can sell for thousands or even tens of thousands as history has shown. There is no other set not named Exquisite that carries this sort of aura, and this year’s Bowman set is no different. In fact, someone pulled and listed one of the biggest cards available in the Kenta Maeda Bowman Superfractor Auto 1/1.

Funny enough, its not even close to the only card that is going to break the 1k mark, something that is awesome for a box that costs less than 100 bucks:

2016 Bowman Yoan Moncada Orange Shimmer Auto /10

2016 Bowman Ultimate Prospect Auto – 24 players /10

2016 Bowman Kenta Maeda Gold Refractor Auto /50

2016 Bowman Dansby Swanson Orange Refractor Auto /10

2016 Bowman Alex Bregman Gold Refractor Auto /50

I love watching Bowman sales, as its like people watching at the local tourist trap. Every so often you see someone walk by that just makes your jaw drop. Sales on some of the main prospect cards are much like that, with some so high it makes you wonder how someone could drop that kind of money on someone with no MLB experience. With the flame out rate of prospects as high as it is, prospecting has become as risky of a venture as ever.

That still doesnt mean people wont shell out big bucks for a guy they are collecting – even if he isnt among the top prospects in the set. That’s what makes this so much fun to observe. I dont see other mid range products generating this type of attention, especially when the Bowman name is attached to so many products each year.

As much as I want to believe that Yoan Moncada is the best thing to play for the Red Sox since David Ortiz, I just cant help but think about all those guys who have been worth as much with so little on their resume. Although, to be fair, I doubt the people who buy these cards are spending money so far outside their price range either. When the Moncada super eventually hits, that’s going to be where things really get nuts.

Overall, Bowman remains a spectacle of a sort that rarely exists in the hobby any longer. We need these types of things to continue, as I see the target market as a shrinking resource, not something that growing. Ill support the reckless spending of people as long as its contributing to more collectors buying Bowman as a result. For right now, that looks like the case.

The gamblers in all of us want to pull the slot machine lever at 60 bucks a pop and hit the jackpot. That pie in the sky mentality is what drives a lot of us to break wax, but as we see with Bowman it actually happens quite a few times.