Saturday, May 22, 2010

When there's no room in hell, the Bowman shall walk the Earth

(Original title for this post= "Bowman- Like Ishtar, but crappier"

This post explains my hatred of Bowman. Bowman has been a rookie set for idiots who can't get the same old stuff in Topps, and it's been doing this for 21 years now.

Why do I hate it? In 2006, Topps began using the Rookie Card rule, wheras the rookie card would represent a player who had been already been playing for a year, already had a Topps rookie card and had to be represented with a tiny little Rookie Card Emblem. That infuriated me.

You see, the fun of the good old days of collecting was seeing those future stars cards, cards with a few different rookies on one card, that gave us rookies of many Hall of Famers like Mike Schmidt, Nolan Ryan, Rod Carew, Jim Rice, etc. The 2006 rule took the fun away. Because the 2006 rule deemed the Bowman set absolutely useless.

I mean, think about it for a second. A product that had showcased plenty of rookies for a decade and a half, and you replace it with a rule that says you do the same friggin thing in your flagship set. I mean, why not just dump the Bowman set altogether?

They didn't. Bowman has been uselessly giving us rookie cards of promising your players for the last five years. And so has Topps.

Another thing that bugs me about Bowman- wouldn't it KILL Topps to actually use a different design every year? I always see that it's the same red border/blue border shtick every year, and the same prospect design every year. How about some originality, Topps. The 1990's Bowman sets (Like 93 and 94 Bowman, my personal favorites) had original designs that showcased both prospects and veterans with the same design- no tweaking involved. Go forward 10 years, and it's been segregated.

So Topps, here's my offer, see if you can accept it. If you want to keep a set that has individual rookies, some of which will never pan out, can't you at least cancel Bowman and bring back another set that all of us bloggers like. Like, ooh, I don't know, Topps Total, or maybe Stadium Club again, or maybe Topps Gallery if you want. I know that card sales are down, but the reason sales are down is that there is nothing on the shelves that collectors would actually want. So please, listen to us for once, instead of randomly giving us another Bowman set next year.

Yeah, if you know me, this is where I ask for feedback. What's your take on Bowman? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you really not care at all, mainly because you're too busy scarfing down Chicle? Let your voice be heard, so I don't have to lose mine.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that the entire RC logo business is a mess. However, most collectors and prospectors are knowledgeable enough to figure out which card of a player is his true (or most valuable) rookie card (usually his 1st chrome bowman).

    Bowman is too important to the hobby to ever be axed. 2010 Bowman has been one of the most exciting releases for baseball in the past several years in my mind. Incredible what some of these rookie cards are demanding.

    I can see your view though. If you have no interest in prospecting, Bowman/Chrome/Draft can all be a little dull for you.

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