2023 Bowman Chrome Baseball marks the return of the brand that’s become a favorite of prospectors who chase names they hope will be of the household variety several years down the road.
The product will have hobby box choices for collectors. With release day set for Wednesday, Sept. 13, Bowman Chrome will have a standard “master box” version, with two mini boxes. Each mini box will have six packs, with five cards to a pack. Each pack will include five cards, with three base cards and two prospects. Topps is promising two autographs per standard box, plus a Shimmer parallel and one Prospects Process insert.
Case hits will contain one Bowman Ascension insert and six Bowman Invicta inserts.
The HTA Choice box, on the other hand, is only one pack with three cards — but all of them are autographs.
You can see every player in the product via the checklist, which is available at the bottom of the page.
Base set/Prospects
2023 Bowman Chrome will have a 100-card base set that will feature rookies and veterans. An additional 100 cards will concentrate on prospects.
The base and prospect cards will have plenty of refractor parallels.
For the base set, parallels feature Refractors (numbered to 499), Fuchsia (299), Aqua RayWave (199), Blue (150), Wave (100), Green (99), Yellow (75), Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and SuperFractors (1/1).
Exclusive to hobby boxes are rookie short print image variations and base set rookie color run variations, the latter being numbered to 23. The Bowman Chrome color run variations, Topps notes, “burst forth with a captivating team tie-dye patterned design.”
Refractor parallels for the prospect cards give collectors more to chase.
They feature Shimmer Refractors, which will fall once in every 12 packs. There are also Refractors (numbered to 499), Speckle (299), Purple (250), Fuchsia Pink Vapor Wave (199), Fuchsia Shimmer (199), Blue (150), Aqua (125), Aqua Pink Vapor (125, hobby only), Green (99), Green Shimmer (99), Yellow (75), Yellow Orange Vapor Wave (75, hobby only), Gold (50), Gold Shimmer (50), Orange (25), Orange Shimmer (25), Red (5), Red Aqua Vapor Wave (5, hobby only), Shimmer Red (5) and SuperFractors (1/1).
Inserts
The 2023 Bowman Chrome set has a few returning insert sets, paired with some debuts.
The AFL Fall Stars offers a look at top prospects for the Arizona Fall League. They fall once every six packs and have parallels in Atomic Refractor (numbered to 150), Orange Refractor (25) and SuperFractor (1/1).
There is also a separate short print for an AFL MVP insert, which will be a 1/1 card.
Also returning are Bowman Invicta insets, with these card appearing once every 24 packs. Parallel refractors can be found in Atomic (numbered to 150), Gold (50), Orange (25), Red (5) and a 1/1 SuperFractor.
A third returnee, Bowman Ascensions, is much scarcer at one in every 144 packs and will have Orange Refractor parallels numbered to 25, along with a 1/1 SuperFractor. These cards will feature work from San Francisco-based artist Jeremy Fish.
Inserts making their debut include Bowman Iconic, which will fall once in every three packs. These cards will feature a photo from the player’s earliest Bowman card on what Topps calls “a glitzy design.”
Also introducing itself is the Prospect Process insert, which will appear once in every 12 packs. The card will follow the career path of top prospects as they work to reach the big leagues. The subset includes Atomic Refractor parallels, numbered to 150; Orange Refractor (25) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Another insert is the base set Retrofractor Variation, a limited group of cards that provide “1st Bowman Chrome cards” for some of the game’s greats. Hidden Gems are also another scarce insert.
Autographs/Relics
Bowman Chrome autographs are heavy on prospects, with on-card signatures for players featured on their first Bowman card.
There are plenty of refractor parallels, along with five that are exclusive to HTA boxes.
Prospect autograph cards have Refractor parallels (numbered to 499), Speckle (299), Purple (250), Blue RayWave (150), HTA Choice Mojo (150, HTA exclusive), Atomic Variation (100), Green (99), Green Lava (99, HTA exclusive), Yellow (75), Gold (50), Gold Shimmer (50, HTA exclusive), Orange Wave (25, HTA exclusive), Red (5), Red Shimmer (5, HTA exclusive) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Chrome rookie signature cards, featuring players who have already played a game in the majors, also have some refractor parallels, with Base (numbered to 499), Blue (150), Green (99), Gold (50), Orange (25, hobby exclusive), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Prime Chrome Signature cards have returned and are numbered to 50. Parallels include an HTA exclusive Orange Refractor, numbered to 25, and 1/1 SuperFractors.
Prospect Process Autographs will have varied serial numbering, with an Orange Refractor numbered to 25 and a 1/1 SuperFractor.
Bowman Iconic Autographs are numbered to 99 and have Orange Refractors numbered to 25 and a SuperFractor (1/1). The Arizona Fall League is represented by AFL Fall Stars Autographs, which have a variable serial number. It also has a 1/1 SuperFractor parallel.
The 2022 AFL MVP short print autograph cards are numbered to 100.
The format is the same for Bowman Ascensions Autographs — a varied number and a 1/1 SuperFractor parallel.
Bowman Invicta Autographs also have varied base serial numbers. Parallel refractors include Gold Atomic (numbered to 50), a hobby exclusive Orange (25), Red (5) and SuperFractor (1/1).
All-American Game Autographs will have varied serial numbers as well.
Memorabilia cards are featured with the hobby-exclusive 2022 AFL Relics cards. They include Orange Refractor parallels numbered to 25 and a 1/1 SuperFractor parallel.
For collectors who enjoy autograph-memorabilia combinations, Bowman Chrome offers a few.
Chrome Auto Relics (Varied number) also have refractor parallels in Gold (numbered to 50), hobby-exclusive Orange (25) and a SuperFractor (1/1).
AFL Relics Autographs (varied) are exclusive to hobby boxes and have an Orange Refractor parallel numbered to 25 and a SuperFractor (1/1).
New this year are AFL Jumbo Chrome Relics that are numbered to 10. Refractor parallels can be found in Red (5), Black Nike Logo (1/1) and SuperFractor (1/1).
Pearl Packs & Pricing
Hobby-exclusive Pearl Packs are extremely tough to find, falling once every 10 cases. Each four-card Pearl pack will include a base set Pearl Refractor and three Chrome Prospect Pearl Refractor.
You can check out current box pricing for 2023 Bowman Chrome Baseball on eBay here.
2023 Bowman Chrome Baseball Checklist
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