Review of the 2007 Bowman Chrome Topps Baseball Cards
Sports Memorabilia
2007 Bowman Chrome Baseball Review
Trading Cards
Growing up I really enjoyed collecting baseball cards. I liked the anticipation of opening up a box and seeing what every package of cards contained. Obviously I was hoping to land that elusive rookie card, my favorite players or whatever else was popular at the time. Usually I got a bunch of other players that didn’t always fit this criteria but I still had fun so all was not lost.
Years of faithful purchases has left me with quite the card gathering. I’m not exactly sure how many cards I actually possess but whatever that number is it has a few zeroes behind it. My last estimate was around twelve larger card storage boxes and around two dozen binders full of cards. I’m not about to count them but I have a few thousand cards easy.
Collecting baseball cards has evolved since I was growing up but the cards are still very popular among the fans of the sport.
Sports Cards
Card manufacturers are constantly trying to one up their competition because every company is drawing from the same pool of players, team information and statistics. The card makers need to be creative in inventing new looks and designs that are attractive to collectors and fans; whatever they can do to make their card more collectable than the other guys.
Bowman went out on a limb when they rolled out their 2007 Chrome cards. These cards are reflective (like chrome) and have a slightly futuristic look and feel to them. I’m not a big Star Wars guy but they look, to me, like they came from those popular movies.
One of the biggest negatives to any collector is mass production of what they collect, the more items available the lower the price stays as dictated by simple supply and demand rules. The chrome box sets are fairly small with only eighteen packs per box; each pack only has four cards in them. My guess is they did this because these cards are a bit thicker than the average baseball card. It appears that the reflective design and three dimensional impressions built into the cards limited the amount of cards that could be reasonably packaged in each pack.
Another possibility was the cost to make these cards. For the manufacturer to keep them affordable they might have only been able to put four cards in each pack. I remember in my active card collecting days I would expect at least ten cards in packs that I bought.
These cards also expanded on their chrome theme by issuing “Refractor” ones on a limited count. Eight different kinds of these special cards are available in the 2007 series and they vary from one of five hundred produced to just an occasional one of one.
2007 Bowman Chrome Baseball Refractors
Refractor Type
| Amount Printed
| Description
|
|---|---|---|
Straight Refractor
| 1 in 500
| Chrome border added to the outline of the regular cards
|
X-Fractor
| 1 in 250
| Reflective checkerboard pattern added to the card background
|
Blue
| 1 in 150
| Blue border used for the outline of the card
|
Gold
| 1 in 50
| Gold Border added to the outline of the card
|
Orange
| 1 in 25
| Orange border, similar to blue and gold
|
Red
| 1 in 5
| Red border, just like other colors described above
|
Superfractor
| 1
| Similar checkerboard pattern as the X-Fractor design, very limited amount made
|
Printing Plates
| 1
| Black and white card and is displayed backwards, just like a printing press
|
These Refractors are nice to look at even thuogh the checkerboard pattern can be a little bit distracting when you are just trying to look at the cards. Value numbers vary but are a bit disappointing until you get to the more elusive cards.
Rookies
One of the more desirable cards for any player is their rookie card. 2007 had a few rookie cards that belong to some of the sport’s biggest names. Having such a large group of looked-for rookie cards makes the 2007 baseball card year popular. Some of the more popular names are players that even an average baseball fan would instantly recognize.
The biggest card in the set is right handed pitcher Tim Lincecum. A multiple CY Young winner Lincecum has had a great start to his big league career.
To me the other rookie card I would want is outfielder Josh Hamilton. Hamilton has emerged as one of the games best hitters and has a wonderful off the field story as well, overcoming a life threatening alcohol and drug addiction.
Other rookie cards are available like outfielder Ryan Braun who has already one won MVP award and is poised to challenge for many more.
Baseball Card Values
Do you collect baseball cards for their potential value?
Bottom Line
Overall these cards are still nice but they are a bit too futuristic for my tastes. Call me old fashioned but I prefer to look at the cards without having to hold them a certain way in the light so I can read what is on them or when I want to look at the front picture.
There are plenty of positives to these cards as well. The small amount of cards per box can help keep the collecting market from becoming too saturated with them and their unique appearance makes them easily identifiable to experts in the industry. Having an unconventional look will always make the cards stand out in a crowd of other cards and being reflective in nature will catch your eye, especially if the lighting or sun is just right.
With this year being so strong on rookie cards it is a huge bonus to the cards as well. This advantage only gets larger when some of these players make it to the Hall of Fame.
I’m a bit torn on giving an overall rating of these cards because there are strong positives and negatives in my opinion. For some their appearance will be impossible to ignore while it might be a turn off for others. The smaller volume of cards is nice but for the younger fans they want volume to feel like they are getting their money’s worth. I will stick with averages here on these cards and give them three stars out of five.
I guess when it comes to the 2007 Bowman Chrome baseball cards beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.
