Tag Archives: 2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects

2013 Futures Game Material Overview

Posted by on 15 July 2014 Comments Off on 2013 Futures Game Material Overview

Stars of tomorrow, jerseys from last year

On Sunday, Noah Syndergaard made his second futures game appearance, closing out the USA team’s 3-2 victory after starting off last year’s Futures Game at Citi Field.  It will be a few months before his jersey from this year’s Futures Game makes its way into cards, but last year’s edition is now widely available thanks to last month’s 2014 Bowman Inception.  In fact, Inception seems to have been the destination for much of the material from the 2013 Futures Game, leaving very little to fill the time before this year’s material appears (likely in 2014 Bowman Draft in November, possibly sooner).  While every year is different, here’s a look back at where the jerseys from the Mets prospects in last year’s Futures Game ended up.

For a guide to the various material types discussed here, see this breakdown of the 2013 NL All-Star jersey.

See all Futures Game material in the archives: USA Team | World Team

2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects


Players: Rafael Montero, Brandon Nimmo
Material: Primary

Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects is a typical landing spot for Futures Game material, so it wasn’t surprising to see the first 2013 Futures Game swatches show up here.  Of the three Mets though, only Rafael Montero and Brandon Nimmo were featured here and only with pieces of the primary fabric panels.  Noah Syndergaard would not have any material released in 2013.  Dilson Herrera, received in the August trade of Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pirates, does have jersey cards here but not as a Met, making them ineligible.  These cards have several serial numbered parallel tiers, but none of them contain any different material.

2014 Bowman


Players: Rafael Montero, Brandon Nimmo, Noah Syndergaard
Material: Primary, Secondary, Side Panel

As usual, the first Bowman product of the year included a few pieces of last year’s Futures Game jerseys.  And by “a few,” I mean 25 of each.  Unlike the more numerous Bowman Draft cards, these contained material from various different parts of the jerseys, including the small side panel sections, as seen in the Montero card above.  This set also featured the first Noah Syndergaard jersey cards as well as another non-qualifying Dilson Herrera card.

2014 Topps Pro Debut


Players: Dilson Herrera, Brandon Nimmo
Material: Primary, Secondary, Patch (Herrera only)

The first minor league product of the year, Pro Debut has a long history (all the way back to 2010) of including Futures Game material.  This year, it was where Topps burned off much of the material from lesser names, meaning Herrera (now shown as a member of the Savannah Sand Gnats and therefore eligible for inclusion here) and Nimmo.  While the material here is not identified as coming from the 2013 Futures Game, its origin is obvious.  The base jersey set (now called “Debut Duds” instead of “Minor League Materials”) featured two parallels (gold, numbered to 50, and silver, numbered to 25) with a mix of primary (front panels) and secondary (back panel) material.  No side panel swatches have been seen so far.  Dilson Herrera was also featured in the jumbo patch set (numbered to 5).

2014 Bowman Inception


Players: Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard, Dilson Herrera (patches only), Brandon Nimmo (patches only)
Material: Primary, Secondary, Patches

After a wait of nearly a year, Bowman Inception finally delivered Noah Syndergaard’s 2013 Futures Game material in quantity.  Syndergaard and Montero were both featured in the base memorabilia set with many parallels and variants containing material of various types, with many (but not all) of the low-numbered variants containing patches.  This is also the product that got most of the remaining large patches, including the apple ASG logo and letter patches (the 2013 Futures Game logo patches from Montero, Nimmo, and Syndergaard remain available for future products).

2014 Bowman Platinum

Players: Noah Syndergaard, Dilson Herrera, Brandon Nimmo (blue parallel only)
Material: Primary, Secondary, Side Panel

Bowman Platinum was absolutely loaded with memorabilia in 2014, much of it from the 2013 Futures Game. The bulk of it is from Noah Syndergaard and Dilson Herrera, including the elusive side panel swatches. Brandon Nimmo shows up in the retail-only blue parallel with primary and secondary swatches, leaving just his side panel swatches left to appear.

2014 Topps Heritage Minor League

Players: Brandon Nimmo
Material: Primary, Secondary, Side Panel

And in the final prospect product of the year with material from the 2013 Futures Game, we get that last missing piece – Brandon Nimmo side panel swatches. And his primary and secondary swatches as well. That wraps things up for 2013, on to 2014…

Adventures in Group Breaking

Posted by on 21 December 2013 Comments Off on Adventures in Group Breaking

Breakin’ 3: Bowman Sterling-y

In case you’ve been living under a rock (or just don’t follow the sports card industry), group breaking is the hottest trend in sports cards.  For a (relatively) small fee, collectors who can’t afford the high prices of modern cases can still get a shot at a big hit, provided that they buy into the right slots.  Formats vary, but there are opportunities to get a big return on a small investment (or the reverse).  I’ve been doing the cost-benefit analysis on the various opportunities I’ve seen and finally found the right mix of return and risk in the year’s final offering from Topps as broken by collector favorite Brent Williams.  But before we get to that, let’s take a look at a couple of smaller breaks I tested the waters with earlier in the year.

2012 Panini Prizm

The first break I considered this year was the 2012 Panini Prizm team break from Brent Williams.  I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk at the asking price when I would probably walk away with a Lucas Duda autograph as the big hit.  Instead, I found a cheap 4-box break to buy into.  That should have been good for two base team sets on average, which would include a Matt Harvey Rookie card (because this was a 2012 product).  In the end, I got what I was hoping for: one full team set, a second team set minus one card, an extra Ike Davis, and a few inserts.

And of course a Duda auto.  There was no getting around that one.

2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects

I never really know how to deal with Bowman Draft.  Prices for some of the cards that come out of it can be quite high, but the long-term value is highly volatile.  Positioned at the end of the base Bowman line, most of the Rookie Cards are duplicates from earlier releases (with new photos), which adds to the confusion.  This year, with increased production, decreased numbering on colored refractors, and more variants than ever before, I just bought up base and chrome lots, the base autographs, and a few cheap parallels and left it at that.  To make things interesting, I also bid on a few player slots in a 5-case break from RynemCaseBreaks.  I ended up with only two, Andrew Church (non-auto only) and Zack Wheeler.  With a total cost including shipping of less than $20 and a practically guaranteed 30+ card lot of base/chrome cards for each player, I wasn’t too worried about coming up empty.  Because there wasn’t much of a chance at a big return anyway.

I actually watched almost all of the 5-case break live and it was quite entertaining.  Some slots came up big while others were big losers.  The Bowman Black slot, a bargain at well under $100, was the big winner with both Kris Bryant and Austin Meadows pulled from the 5 cases.  That’s over $500 worth of cards for a slot that could have been a total loss.  On the Mets side of things, the $20 Andrew Church autograph slot came up big with base, refractor, and orange refractor (#d/25) versions pulled in the break.  The $120 Dominic Smith autograph slot on the other hand got just a base autograph (worth about $20).

My slots were not big winners.  In addition to the expected base and chrome cards, I got four parallels: two Zack Wheeler refractors, a Zack Wheeler ice parallel, and an Andrew Church black wave refractor.  Out of all of the base Mets pulled in the break, the best card was a green refractor numbered to 75.

2013 Bowman Sterling

And now, the main event.  Bowman Sterling isn’t exactly my favorite product.  Released at the end of the year, it usually features a mix of rehashed rookies and draft picks, a less popular second helping of autographs we’ve already seen in more interesting products.  Last year, a terribly bland design with refractors that barely looked like refractors did nothing to help the checklist of repeat signers.  Prices on the secondary market reflected these problems; I picked up a gold refractor autograph (#d/50) of Kirk Nieuwenhuis for $1.50 plus shipping and a black refractor autograph (#d/25) of Kevin Plawecki for about $10 more.  The Bowman Black autographs had some decent value, but the massive chipping that plagued thick Topps autographs in 2012 caused them to lose some of their appeal.  Sterling needed a revamp to justify taking a slot in the Topps lineup.

2013 Bowman Sterling is a completely different product from its 2012 incarnation.  Sure, the basics are still the same: 3 autographs per pack, 18 total autographs per box, dual sticker autographs, Bowman Black autographs numbered to 25, etc.  This time though, the autographs are in portrait orientation (typically more highly desired than landscape) and green, ruby, and orange refractor parallels fill the space between refractors and gold refractors.  Most Rookie Card autographs are, unfortunately, on stickers, but the product delivers where it counts: prospect autographs.  2013 draft picks Dominic Smith and Andrew Church return after Bowman Draft, but joining them are Noah Syndergaard with his first Mets autographs and L.J. Mazzilli (fan favorite Lee Mazzilli’s son) with his first certified autograph cards.  Add in some Zack Wheeler sticker autographs and you have a solid Mets checklist with a few must-haves for any serious Mets collector.

Shortly after the checklist was released, Brent Williams announced the possibility of a team-based group break of Bowman Sterling on launch day.  With 106 rookie/prospect autographs in 2013 Bowman Sterling and 144 total autographs in an 8-box case, the odds of getting all of a team’s base autographs are pretty good.  A quick calculation put the over/under of the value of the Mets slot at $90.  For the right price, this would be a great break to get in on.  Which meant that I probably wasn’t the only Mets fan who would be after this slot.

Two days later, Brent Williams announced that the Bowman Sterling break was on.  I was catching up on Twitter while waiting in line at the post office to mail out recent auction sales.  And I was a couple of hours behind on my tweets.  Skipping to the top, I saw that the price breakdown had just been posted.  The Mets slot was priced at $90, right on my estimated cost.  At that price, even getting just the base Mets autographs wouldn’t be a bad deal, especially with them all in one package sent the day after launch.  There was a chance of getting less, but there was also a decent chance of getting some nice bonuses.  20 minutes after the announcement, I claimed the Mets slot without hesitation.  And then I waited two long days for the break to begin.

2013 Bowman Sterling 8-Box Case Break – brentandbecca

I tried to keep my expectations in check.  All I wanted were the five base Mets autographs, one of the base Mets cards, and something extra.  Unfortunately, I missed the start of the break and came in about halfway through.  Among all of the Pirates, Philies, and Yankees autographs, I saw only a Noah Syndergaard base card and two L.J. Mazzilli base autographs.  From what I heard, I had missed a pair of Andrew Church base autographs and a Dominic Smith green refractor autograph.  That still left me three base autographs short of my goal as the break entered its final minutes.  And then the rest of them started hitting one after another.  The base Dominic Smith auto and a green refractor Zack Wheeler auto came up at the end of box number 7.  Box number 8 held the final two base autos, Syndergaard and Wheeler.  And with that, this break had exceeded my expectations.

And that’s it.  Nothing huge, but everything I wanted.  I also had a chance at both The Duel inserts featuring Mets, but I lost out on both of them to the other team featured on the card.  Now I’m just waiting for the post office to deliver the cards.