2014 Bowman Platinum Baseball blaster x 3

Sport:  Baseball
Product:  2014 Bowman Platinum blaster
Break Date:  July 31, 2014
Hit Breakdown:  No guaranteed hits
Summary:  Bowman Platinum is one of the most fun breaks of the year, for a few reasons. One, it's got a good mix of prospects and stars. Two, it's got a good mix of base, rookies, and inserts. Lastly, for its price point you can land some nice hits.

I've found that Topps, of late, seems to have front-loaded retail - it seems that if you can find the first batch of cards that hit the shelves, you've got a better shot at landing some nice cards than if you were to pick up the same product two to three months after release, once the stores start re-stocking with second and third shipments from the manufacturer. 

So, when I was at Target and saw they had three blasters, I bought 'em all.

The first blaster started off fairly poorly. There were a few nice inserts, but nothing too exciting. Even the Chrome rookie variations weren't anyone to get stoked about. Plus, a good percentage of the cards had dinged bottom left corners - the Buxton rookie included. Not a good way to begin a break.

The second blaster, though - everything changed. There was a Kris Bryant Top Prospects die-cut insert in the very first pack, and there isn't a hotter player on the market right now – that guy's stuff is gold. Then, in the second pack (maybe it was the third), a few cards down one was flipped upside down, which automatically means autograph – and it was. And, it was numbered - a blue refractor auto, numbered to 199 – Jake Sweaney. I've never heard of him, but any time you pull an auto it's great, and numbered? I'll take that all day long. To top it off, there was a Carlos Correa Chrome rookie, a Masahiro Tanaka Cutting Edge Stars insert, and some decent colored base parallels - both sapphire and ruby. As far as blasters go, this one was great!

The last blaster may not have topped the second, but it sure came close. There was another autograph, and it was numbered as well – a green /399 – Cory Vaughn, who, according to the card back, is the son of Greg Vaughn, a guy I collected as a kid. Then, in the next-to-last pack, there was another numbered parallel, a green refractor Reese McGuire. However, like the first blaster, the bottom left corners on a good portion of the cards were dinged and had foil peeling – including the Kris Bryant rookie.

Ironically, out of the three blasters I pulled five Top Prospects inserts – ALL Cubs. Odds on that have to be pretty crazy.

Across the board, for $57 (blasters were $19.99, minus 5% for using my Target card), it was a complete win. A hobby box will run you somewhere between $80 - $100 and will get you three autos, and I got two for about half the price, and they were both numbered. The only reason that this isn't an A+ break is because the condition of so many of the base cards was poor.

Grade for the product:  A-

Grade for the break:  A

Blaster #1
Top Prospects:  Jorge Soler, Javier Baez
Cutting Edge Stars:  David Ortiz
Toolsy Die Cut:  Mookie Betts
Chrome Prospects:  Stryker Trahan, JP Crawford
Gold Parallel:  Christian Bethancourt (RC), Zack Wheeler

Blaster #2
Blue Refractor Autograph /199: Jake Sweaney 
Top Prospects:  Kris Bryant, CJ Edwards
Cutting Edge Stars:  Masahiro Tanaka
Toolsy Die Cut:  Maikel Franco
Chrome Prospects:  Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor
Gold Parallel:  Dustin Pedrioa
Sapphire Parallel:  Max Scherzer
Ruby Parallel:  Francisco Liriano

Blaster #3
Green Refractor Autograph /399: Cory Vaughn 
Green Refractor:  Reese McGuire 
Top Prospects:  Albert Almora
Cutting Edge Stars:  Hisashi Iwakuma
1989 Bowman is Back Silver Diamond Refractor:  Chris Davis
Chrome Prospects:  Lucas Sims, Luis Sardinas
Gold Parallel:  Carlos Santana, Jon Singleton (RC)
Sapphire Parallel:  David Ortiz