What does it take to vault 16 spots to our number one spot? Most would say a Herculean effort, but for Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants, it’s just another day at the office. The number five overall pick by San Fransisco in the 2008 Draft is paying off much earlier dividends than originally expected. Through the first 20 days of July, Buster is hitting .481 (25/52) with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs and 17 RBIs. Buster has emerged as a favorite from this loaded NL rookie class that features titans like Strasburg, Heyward, Leake, Stanton, and many others who have previously graced our #1 spot.

1. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Buster Posey Auto (16)
2. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects David Price Auto (5)
3. 2010 Bowman Prospects Stephen Strasburg Auto (1)
4. 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects Stephen Strasburg (2)
5. 1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamiliton RC Auto (21)
6. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects Michael Moustakas Auto (19)
7. 2009 Donruss Elite Brandon Belt Auto (NR)
8. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects Brennan Boesch Auto (8)
9. 2010 Bowman Chrome USA Bryce Harper (4)
10. 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Mike Stanton Auto (9)
11. 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Mike Minor Auto (NR)
12. 2005 Donruss EEE Ubaldo Jimenez RC Auto (5)
13. 2005 Upper Deck SPx Ubaldo Jimenez RC Auto (8)
14. 2004 Bowman Chrome Prospects Phil Hughes Auto (NR)
15. 1997 Bowman Roy Halladay Auto (NR)
16. 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Mike Trout Auto (22)
17. 1999 Topps Traded Carl Crawford RC Auto (NR)
18. 1993 Upper Deck SP Derek Jeter RC (13)
19. 2003 Upper Deck Prospects Andre Ethier RC Auto (14)
20. 1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamilton Auto (NR)
21. 2009 Bowman Chrome Prospects Carlos Santana Auto (NR)
22. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospect Jason Heyward Auto(11)
23. 2003 Bowman Heritage Robinson Cano Auto (10)
24. 2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Pick Evan Longoria Auto (21)
25. 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospect JP Arencibia Auto (NR)

Happy collecting!

This our first look at the 2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball product. A much anticipated release from Topps after the resurgence of the Bowman line from the first 2010 release. The 2010 Bowman product, fueled by First Prospect cards of Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper the release has surged towards Upper Deck Exquisite-esque prices nearing $400 per box.

With Strasburg slated to have another autograph in the set, the newly crowned hobby hero, should help fuel the release of this product. Topps has also announced that Strasburg will be available in the rest of their 2010 products.

Quite a few other coveted prospected have been rumored to appear on their First Bowman Prospect Auto card as well:

• BCP197 TBD
• BCP198 Adeinis Hechavarria
• BCP199 Aroldis Chapman
• BCP200 Dee Gordon
• BCP201 Brett Wallace
• BCP202 Kyle Gibson
• BCP203 Max Kepler
• BCP204 Shelby Miller
• BCP205 Miguel Sano
• BCP206 Brett Oberholtzer
• BCP207 Gary Sanchez
• BCP208 Jacob Turner
• BCP209 Josh Satin
• BCP210 Matt Davidson
• BCP211 Arodys Vizcaino
• BCP212 TBD
• BCP213 Robinson Chirinos
• BCP214 Trayce Thompson
• BCP215 TBD
• BCP216 Corban Joseph
• BCP217 Noel Arguelles
• BCP218 Tim Beckham
• BCP219 Yonder Alonzo
• BCP220 Juan Urbina

While this may only be a preliminary checklist that Topps has issued for the set, it is leaving most prospector salivating at the idea that once Razor exclusives could possible be featured in the product. Other top prospects include Cuban defector and Reds Top Prospect Aroldis Champan and the Minnesota Twins 2009 First Round pick Kyle Gibson, who has a consensus top 10 pick going into the draft, but was injured prior to the draft, causing him to slide to the 22nd spot.

Be sure to check back for updates, as we will be updating information as we receive it.

The product is scheduled to hit shelves on Wednesday, October 13, 2010.

While, we’re not exactly sure how they all ended up on in the sellers hands, over 2,400 2008 Rene Tosoni Bowman Chrome Auto’s have been placed up for auction on eBay. The seller, who deals in “buying lost freight shipments, unclaimed freight, manufacturer and distributor overstocks, and close-out merchandise”.

The seller currently has auctions for 2,412 of the cards, that were originally inserted as redemptions from Topps in their 2008 Bowman Chrome product:

• 500 base autographs
• 498 base autographs
• 484 base autographs
• 480 of 500 Refractor autographs
• 241 of 250 Xfractor autographs
• 142 of 150 Blue Refractor autographs
• 44 of 50 Gold Refractor autographs
• 23 of 25 Orange Refractor autographs

The lot of the Orange refractors also contains 24 of 25 Tim Bascom Orange Refractors autographs too. If you ever wanted to own a near entire print run of an card, here is your chance.

This has to make you wonder what Topps will do to replace the redemptions currently in circulation or which have been redeemed?

In a recent tweet on Twitter, Topps has announced that Wilmer Flores has begun to sign his 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft cards. These originally were inserted in packs as redemption only and may collectors were growing inpatient and speculating that Flores would not sign and these cards would be deemed as replacements only.

Prospectors and collectors alike love the adrenaline rush from the mid-season prospect call-up or the rookie who was invited out of camp making it big in their first season of play. This year’s crop of recent call-ups and rookies have not let us down. Like previous seasons, some of our favorites and some dark horses have been putting up huge numbers on their first blush with the show.

Not only have these huge starts resulted in immediate pay-off for their big league club, it has resulted in a large pay-off for prospectors who have been sitting on a large stash, waiting for the right time to sell. Let’s take a look at some of the players making a large splash today:

Rick Porcello – SP – Detroit Tigers (9-7, 4.36 ERA, 55 Ks)
This 20 year flame thrower made it to the bigs directly out of camp. His 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft and 2008 Donruss EEE Auto continue to be hot sellers. His prices have cooled off in the past few weeks, but there is still a monumental upside to Porcello.

Elvis Andrus – SS – Texas Rangers (.263 AVG, 4 HR, 20 SB, 42 R)
Another 20 year phenom making it on the everyday roster, the Rangers saw so much talent is Andrus they moved over perennial All-Star and Gold Glove winner Michael Young to 3B. His 2006 Bowman Chrome Prospect has been selling pretty steadily all season. Plan on buying on a few these to hold as he should have a permanent spot on the roster and possible All-Star roster.

Tommy Hanson – P – Atlanta Braves (6-2, 3.22 ERA, 46 Ks)
Considered by some as the crown jewel of the very talented Atlanta Braves prospect pool, Hanson has added some much needed stability to the shaky Braves rotation. Collectors were salivating at Hanson after he started off his young career 5-0 and was making headlines across the sports world. After his June call-up, price of his 2007 Bowman Chrome Prospect sky rocketed in anticipation and reached new heights after his hot start. His first certified auto was just released in the 2009 Topps Chrome set.

Gordon Beckham – 3B – Chicago White Sox (.314 AVG, 6 HR, 38 RBI, 18 2B)
It’s hard to believe that a little over a year ago Beckham was on the main stage at the College World Series, now he is in the lime light in Chicago, working on a ROY-type season. In the past weeks his cards have started to soar in price. His 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Auto has seen a steady incline in price. These cards could hit all new highs as the White Sox make a push towards the post season and Beckham climbs higher in the ROY ballets.

Andrew McCutchen – OF – Pittsburgh Pirates (.292 AVG, 7 HR, 32 RBI, 5 3B)
It seems every year prospectors talk about when McCutchen was going to be brought up to help the struggling Pirates organization. Consistently ranked Number 1 by Baseball America in the Pirates Organization since he was drafted, McCutchen finally got called up. The Pirates haven’t been disappointed. McCutchen’s 2004 Bowman Chrome AFLAC and 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft have seen nice gains as McCutchen has started to adjust to every day play in the bigs. He has a great shot at a NL ROY award and you could see a nice spike in sales if he would win.

Derek Holland – P – Texas Rangers (4-7, 5.60 ERA, 68 Ks)
This 25th round pick of the Rangers made his way to the starting rotation after his second full year in the minors. His 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Auto has been steadily increasing with each start. Holland could be a number 1 starter in the coming years.

Josh Reddick – OF – Boston Red Sox (.313 AVG, 1 HR, 3 2B in 4 games)
With only a few games under his belt, Reddick has made a huge splash in the hobby with his over night success at the plated. His 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Auto almost doubled over night. I would consider these a strong hold if you haven’t already sold.

Matt Wieters – C – Baltimore Orioles (.269 AVG, 3 HR, 14 RBI)
Easily the most anticipated prospect in all of MLB coming into the 2009 season. The Paul Bunyan-esk Weiters has got off to slow start in Baltimore but is showing leaps and bounds of adjustment and improvement to the game. Sales have remained steady on his 2007 Donruss EEE and 2009 SPx Auto.

Over the weekend, our friends at BlowOutCards.com were having a sale on their 2009 Bowman Baseball boxes. I decided to buy one so that I could do a review of the product for all of my readers, as well as, hold the very first DailyWax Reader Contest. To enter the contest, simply reply to this entry with your name and email address (which will not be visible) along with your guess of which pack (1 through 24) will contain the Bowman Chrome Prospect Auto. If you correctly guess which pack contains the auto, I will mail you the card. In the event of multiple correct guesses, it will be randomly awarded to one of the correct guessers. You are only allowed to enter your guess once, multiple guesses from the same email address will result in disqualification from the contest. Be sure you use a valid email address, as I will be contacting the winner via email on where to send their prize. I plan on posting the results of the break as well as my review of the product sometime this week, so please check back for the results.

This our first look at the 2009 Bowman Chrome product. Always a fan favorite, this years product looks to be another success for the product. The product will feature a 220-card base set, 40 card World Baseball Classic, and of course, the prospects inserted 2 in every pack. Each of the cards will also be produced in Bowman Chrome familiar parallel sets of Refractors, XFractors, Blue Refractors, Gold Refractors, Orange Refractors, Red Refractors, Superfractors, and Printing Plates, ranging in production numbers of 500 to 1 of 1’s. These parallel’s are inserted 7 per box.

The prospect checklist contains 110 players that have previously not had a card in the Bowman Chrome series. Still missing from the set is last years top-pick, Tim Beckham. The preliminary Prospect Autograph set, inserted 1 per box, looks to be very promising. One of the more attractive perks about the Bowman Chrome Prospect sets is that each of the prospects are always featured in their MLB uniforms. The checklist contains autographs from some of the top prospects in the game. Some of highlights include: Tommy Hanson, Freddie Freeman, Carlos Santana, and Dayan Viciedo. Here is a small run down of the autograph checklist from the 2009 Bowman Chrome Baseball Hobby Sellsheet:

• BCP91 Rinku Singh
• BCP92 Dinesh Kumar Patel
• BCP93 Randall Delgado
• BCP94 Pat Venditte
• BCP95 Zack Putnam
• BCP96 Robbie Grossman
• BCP97 Tommy Hanson
• BCP98 Gift Negope
• BCP99 Dylan Lindsay
• BCP100 Chris Marrero
• BCP101 Freddie Freeman
• BCP102 Chris Johnson
• BCP103 Jefry Marte
• BCP104 Ernie Banks
• BCP105 Brett Anderson
• BCP106 Juancarlos Sulbaran
• BCP107 Ryan Perry
• BCP108 Carlos Santana
• BCP109 Brad Emaus
• BCP110 Dayan Viciedo
• BCP111 Tim Federowicz
• BCP112 Allen Craig

I can guarantee that at least two of those prospect auto’s will be cut prior to production as BCP111 and BCP112 already belong to Beemer Weams and Logan Morrison from the 2009 Bowman inserts. With the numerous parallels, great prospect checklist, and riding on the heels of the lackluster prospect autograph checklist from the base Bowman, you can count on this being a very hot product.

Without a doubt, each year the most highly anticipated release belongs to the Bowman Chrome series. Not only for their brilliant designs, unmatched prospect checklist, multiple refractor parallels, but for the prospect autograph set. These cards allow collectors to get a little bit closer to some of their favorite prospects by providing them a Topps-certified, on card, autograph of the prospect. Some of these prospect autographs have proved to pay off very large dividends to the collectors. Here is a small glance at our favorite Bowman Chrome Prospect Auto’s of all-time who are now in the big’s, paying off their collectors those big dividends.

1. 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols RC Auto
2. 2002 Bowman Chrome David Wright RC Auto
3. 2002 Bowman Chrome Joe Mauer RC Auto
4. 2005 Bowman Chrome Ryan Braun RC Auto
5. 2006 Bowman Chrome Evan Longoria RC Auto
6. 2003 Bowman Chrome Hanley Ramirez RC Auto
7. 2005 Bowman Chrome Jacoby Ellsbury RC Auto
8. 2004 Bowman Chrome Felix Hernandez RC Auto
9. 2005 Bowman Chrome Ryan Zimmerman RC Auto
10. 2003 Bowman Chrome Kevin Youkilis RC Auto
11. 2007 Bowman Chrome Tim Lincecum RC Auto
12. 2006 Bowman Chrome Justin Upton RC Auto
13. 2003 Bowman Chrome Brian McCann RC Auto
14. 2006 Bowman Chrome Clayton Kershaw RC Auto
15. 2006 Bowman Chrome Jon Lester RC Auto
16. 2005 Bowman Chrome Justin Verlander RC Auto
17. 2003 Bowman Chrome Nick Markakis RC Auto
18. 2007 Bowman Chrome Joba Chamberlain RC Auto
19. 2006 Bowman Chrome Alex Gordon RC Auto
20. 2008 Bowman Chrome Matt LaPorta RC Auto

The Holy Grail of sports card has turned up in Gem Mint fashion on eBay. A [ebay-item: 270366061067,BGS 9.5/10 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols Auto] is currently up for auction on the site. I have seen a number of BGS 9 for sale, but this 9.5 is a rarity. The seller claims a previous PSA 10 went for $15,100, and this seller has a slighltly lower BIN on the card.

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It’s that time of year again. No, not the pennant races, but, the release of Bowman Chrome’s baseball product. Each year this product becomes more and more anticipated, and pack busters are constantly looking for their next pot-of-gold prospect.

This year product follows on the footsteps of the 2008 Bowman releases that was packed with an all-star line-up of future talent. The Chrome release features the rookie card of Kosuke Fukudome, as well as autographs of some great prospects. Engel Beltre, Austin Jackson, Andrew Lambo, Lars Anderson, Angel Villalona, and Ryan Kalish (just to mention a few) each are featured on Prospect Autograph cards that come in base, refractor, xfractor, blue refractor, gold refractor, orange refractor, red refractor, superfractor, and printing plat variations. Each of the refractor versions are number stamped on the rear of the card. I have seen some preliminary pricing for the autographs on eBay, and the Beltre and Jackson are selling for around $50 each.

A disappointing find from the autographs is that Angel Villalona is a redemption card. From what I hear, he is nearly impossible to obtain an autograph from, and has been called the Barry Bond of the minor leagues, because of his stingy habits. On the bright side, if you do get one, you can be on of the first to try out Topps’ new online redemption program.

The base set carries some of the same characteristics as the prospect set, offering a variety of refractors, but without the autographs. Each hobby pack contains 4 cards, 2 of which are prospect cards.

As always, Bowman Chrome does not disappoint this year. Plenty of people will stock piling up on the prospect autographs hoping to land their needle-in-the-haystack.

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Checklist coming soon.
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