Prospecting on a Budget

 You'd have to really enjoy the risk to go for it with a box of Bowman nowadays. Meanwhile, I'll just use a box of this to scratch the itch.

And you get the fun of looking back on the cards from this and recognizing familiar names for whatever reason! Hey, that Michael Harris guy in Atlanta is pretty good! Hey, that DPL guy, Juarlin Soto, signed with the Jays. That means it is now a Jays card! 

Let's see who I'll be looking back at cards of in a few years to see what happened to them!

Pack 1:

The packs seem to be structured in such a way to contain one base card, one insert, one additional insert or parallel, and two hits. The box promises 8 autos and 2 relics, so for about $100 for a hobby box, it is definitely a much cheaper way to prospect. Even if there isn't longer term value without the Bowman logo. As for the players, Tommy Troy (who I'll be confusing namewise with NHLer Troy Terry), is Stanford-pictured, but an Arizona draft pick. Jake Cunningham, whose signature implodes on his last name, was a 5th rounder of the Orioles. Carson Rucker wasn't in Bowman, so he makes his cardboard debut here.

This was definitely a solid pack even before the hits came up. Both inserts are numbered parallels, with Gonzalez being a purple parallel /49 (we'll see him again!) and Chase Davis of the Cardinals being /200. Both it, and the Carson Rucker are set aside for future trade envelopes. I'd love to know which minor league team was sporting the neon green on the Logan Tanner. I'm guessing the Daytona Tortugas, based on his Instagram. There's also my first DPL auto. Say what you will about their inclusion, but their autos tend to be pretty legible.

That's definitely a solid pack for the Mets with them making a pair of cards. That's Colin Houck's name hiding among the foil on the insert, with Kade Morris being a more obvious entry. Jacob Gonzalez makes his return one pack later for what is certainly the big hit  of the pack. An auto, a three colour swatch with both a patch and a pinstripe and a numbering to 10? This box should probably have been sent to Chicago, as his presence on a couple low-numbered cards could nicely give a White Sox a much needed pick-me-up.

With this Jake DeLeo auto, this really was a hot box for people with some variance of Jake/Jacob as their name. Much like with Cunningham, the first name is pretty legible as a 'Jake', but the last name is less so. In terms of legibility, Brailyn Fuentes is an easy victor, and he even adds a little circle to wrap it up. That was also my only on-card auto as well. Roni Garcia is a Prime Numbers parallel, numbered to a very non-prime numbered /60. 

Even that gold Gonzalez can't beat the card in the final pack as my favourite in the box. It isn't even that Houck auto bound for my Mets PC. It's that Higher Learning of 2/14 baby Nolan Schanuel. Assuming my spreadsheets are correct, which they may not be, that puts me at 3950 total 2/14 cards in that collection. 4000 is sooooo close! With the Expo coming up later this month, and about 20 or so in my latest COMC shipment - that milestone is gonna be reached this spring!

There you have it!