Question about 07 Bowman

[Tripredacus]

I'm moving away from collecting baseball teams and into sets and my first set I want to work on is going to be 2007 Bowman. I am going to do regular and Chrome but I have some questions. I tried to collect these sets when they came out but I got frustrated.

1. I had realised before that the regular set for Bowman and BC did not have the same players in it. I also know that there are Chrome versions of the prospects sets, as well as refractors for those. And some prospects have black borders and some have white borders. Does the Prospects set from regular and chrome have the same numbering and players? What do the different borders mean?

2. What are the parallels for both sets? For Chrome it appears to be Refractor, X-Fractor, Blue Refractor, Gold Refractor, Orange Refractor (and I guess Red) is this correct?

3. Were there any Refractors in the regular base set?

My big concern is getting the chromes mixed up between the two sets. For example, the BDPP set (with the USA teams) I have 4 different Evan Longorias. 1 regular, 1 blue (numbered), 1 chrome version and 1 refractor version. Does this card exist in both the regular and Chrome sets or just the regular set and it happened to have a Chrome and Refractor parallel?

This is a real fun set for me to collect if it wasn't so confusing! I really love refractors.

 

[Hama]

I'm moving away from collecting baseball teams and into sets and my first set I want to work on is going to be 2007 Bowman. I am going to do regular and Chrome but I have some questions. I tried to collect these sets when they came out but I got frustrated.

1. I had realised before that the regular set for Bowman and BC did not have the same players in it. I also know that there are Chrome versions of the prospects sets, as well as refractors for those. And some prospects have black borders and some have white borders. Does the Prospects set from regular and chrome have the same numbering and players? What do the different borders mean?

There are blue bordered and white bordered parallels for the base cards in the Bowman set - They are serial numbered to 500 for the blue and I think 225 for the whites. There are red parallels which are 1/1s

2. What are the parallels for both sets? For Chrome it appears to be Refractor, X-Fractor, Blue Refractor, Gold Refractor, Orange Refractor (and I guess Red) is this correct?

Chrome - Base, Refractor, XFractor/299?, Blue Refractor/199?, Gold Refractor/50, Orange Refractor/25, Red Refractor/5, SuperFractor/1,

3. Were there any Refractors in the regular base set?

The rundown for the chromes for the base set is the same for all cards - Bowman Chrome and Bowman Chrome Prospects

My big concern is getting the chromes mixed up between the two sets. For example, the BDPP set (with the USA teams) I have 4 different Evan Longorias. 1 regular, 1 blue (numbered), 1 chrome version and 1 refractor version. Does this card exist in both the regular and Chrome sets or just the regular set and it happened to have a Chrome and Refractor parallel?

This is a real fun set for me to collect if it wasn't so confusing! I really love refractors.

Bowman and Bowman Chrome are two standalone sets. They are packaged together in the same product for Bowman and Bowman Draft. In Bowman - the first batch of prospects are available in Chrome form along with their respective parallels. Bowman Chrome is a separate issue where they have the base set of Major Leaguers as well as the next batch of prospects.

Bowman Draft will have the updates for some trades and new MLB RCs - as well as a new batch of prospects/draft picks and players from the Futures Game held during the AS Break.

Yes, it's confusing for non-initiated, but unfortunately with the advent of the MLB Rookie Card by the MLBPA and the allowance for the Prospects as "inserts" it just makes the landscape that much more confusing.

 

[Tripredacus]

Thanks for the info, just one last one. The Bowman Chrome Prospects seem to come in black and white border versions. I know this means one is the Chrome Prospect insert from the regular set, and one is the version for the Chrome set. Is the black bordered Chrome Prospects for the regular set, and if so do they have the same Refractor parallels as the Chrome set?

As an example, I have two of the same card, Tony Paniagua (Tampa Bay) that is the regular Prospect Chome card, but one is black and the other white.

 

[Hama]

Depends on the year - if it's 07 - the White border is the base refractor

 

[GarkoCollector]

Just an FYI, Bowman Chrome in 07 is one of the most expensive to complete from recent years. With Joba, Lincecum, Price and a couple of others, the cost just for the base autos alone is steep. Make sure you know what you are getting into before plunking down money to start on it.
Tom