In the spring 2014 Bowman release, Topps issued the highly anticipated 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Kris Bryant autographs, representing the first Bowman Chrome autos of baseball’s Minor League Player of the Year. Bryant, the #2 overall pick of the 2013 draft by the Chicago Cubs, is expected to be in their 
lineup next season.
Now as everybody knows, the first Bowman Chrome auto generally represents the key card for any player in the Bowman Chrome auto era, while the rarest parallels of those cards generally represent the top end of the hobby for that player. Topps later bogeyed by introducing 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Kris Bryant base autos – that is, a preceding card – as a “bonus” in 2014 Bowman Inception boxes, and then in 2014 Bowman Platinum as well.
This was a huge mistake on Topps’ part for reasons we’ll discuss some other time. But the burning question on collectors’, dealers’, and case breakers’ minds is: Where are the color refractor parallels?
Could they be in Bowman Chrome?
Ahead of next week’s release of 2014 Bowman Chrome, we now have our first clue that the answer to the latter question could be “Yes”? The Beckett.com online price guide (OPG) currently lists various parallels of the 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Kris Bryant auto as “Issued in various Topps products.”
If you’re Beckett, you don’t list these cards – particularly ones this high profile – unless you know they exist. That said, note that there are no Blue #/99, Gold #/50, Orange #/25, Purple #/10, Red #/5, or Superfractor 1/1 parallels listed. That may be a clue that these cards are slated for 2014 Bowman Draft and/or 2014 Bowman Sterling later this year.
That Superfractor, incidentally, is a card that we know exists from this picture posted on Kris Bryant’s @KrisBryant_23 Twitter feed from October 9, 2013.
First professional baseball card! Thank you topps!! pic.twitter.com/TNAXb2U1d2
— Kris Bryant (@KrisBryant_23) October 10, 2013
Jeff Hwang is a gaming industry consultant and the best-selling author of Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy, the three-volume Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha series and The Modern Baseball Card Investor. Follow Jeff on Twitter @RivalSchoolX.
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