In the past, Bowman Sterling has been quite the thorn in my side, as the cards have looked nice, but really dont offer much to necessitate the ridiculous price tag that is attached to the front of the box. For the first time, with 2014, I really dont like the design, which makes the price significantly less appealing than it already was.

Here are some of the big hits so far:

2014 Bowman Sterling Blake Bortles Superfractor Auto 1/1

2014 Bowman Sterling Drew Brees Auto Red /50

2014 Bowman Sterling Teddy Bridgewater / Johnny Manziel Dual Patch Auto

2014 Bowman Sterling Odell Beckham Jr Patch Auto

2014 Bowman Sterling Paul Richardson Superfractor Patch Auto 1/1

I get what they are trying to do, almost creating a Sword looking presentation in the metallic type background of the card. I think that this might have worked for a product like Valor on regular stock, but with this stock, it takes away from the look of the card, making it more dark than anything.

Chrome and Topps usually are a match made in collector heaven, as the simplicity of the approach to many of the designs lend themselves very well to the stock. Panini has failed so massively with this approach that it makes their Prizm cards look about as hideous as they come. Unfortunately,

Bowman Sterling doesnt really match up with any Chrome style product that Topps does, and it suffers due to the failure. I just dont think that simplicity carried over in the same way. As a result, the majority of this set is horrible looking. Add in that these cards are sticker autographs throughout the entire run and it becomes one of the worst buys for the money it costs.

I have said this week that any product with Superfractors will sell, but I just dont see it here. Bowman Sterling has been around for a long time, but someone needs to do a mercy killing here. This is a disaster, even more so with the fact that it was released on the same day as Topps Platinum. Why they would pit these two against each other is beyond me.