2023 Bowman Draft – Rip & Product Review

I bought a 2023 Bowman Draft Jumbo Box for $525. Below you can see what I pulled, was it worth it?

2023 Bowman Draft comes at a steep price point. I wrote earlier asking if this was officially the end of the hobby as we know it. While the statement was quite drastic, one can definitely draw a parallel between the effect group breaking is having on the hobby and the steep rise in product price.

**See the 2023 Bowman Draft sortable checklist and odds sheet here**

A quick trip to my local card shop, armed with my Topps MVP Buyback cards, resulted in the purchase of a Jumbo Box of 2023 Bowman Draft. I did need to provide some cash in order to amass the full $525 needed to acquire the box, as the MVP Buyback cards didn’t quite cut the mustard on the steep cost of the product.

While the excitement was palpable, the end product left me wanting quite a bit more. I was able to rationalize the whole situation as a half trade-in for the MVP Buyback cards, but in reality I feel I could have invested this money into my collection in a much better way.

Unless one is to hit a big auto of a top prospect (or a Brady card!), Bowman Draft is seen more as a hold and wait investment option. The players that make up the set are fairly young prospects and just starting out their professional career, so the tale of the tape isn’t completely written and won’t be for a few years, yet one can get an idea of the value they posses after opening the product and doing some leg work.

Below, I will break down what I pulled and the current value with some light scouting reports on the various prospect hits so we can maybe get a look into the future potential of the box as a whole. So, without further ado, here is what I pulled…

The Rip & The Result

First we will begin with the notable Bowman 1st paper base. The Bowman 1st cards are seen as the first cards printed of each prospect. They used to be considered a rookie card until MLB and the card companies got together and created a more defined, albeit confusing, approach to Rookie Cards. Here are some of the more significant 1sts, notice the duplicates pulled from one box….somewhat disappointing but I liked getting multiples of the bigger names…

Bowman 1st Paper Base:

• 2x Wyatt Langford
• 2x Max Clark
• 2x Matt Shaw
• 2x Jacob Wilson
• Colin Houck
• Noble Meyer
• Rhett Lowder
• Paul Skenes

The bulk of the product is base paper, so this is a just a sampling of some of the big names. I also managed to get triples of one or two guys, but they were less notable names so decided not to list them. You will get tons of paper base with one of these boxes, and unless a player goes off like Elly De La Cruz or Ohtani, paper base will hold only a nominal value on the open market.

Next we will look at the notable Bowman 1st Chrome pulls, a more collectible subset that can bring some fairly lofty prices for singles down the road if your player goes stratospheric with popularity. Here are the pulls:

Bowman 1st Chrome:

• Paul Skenes
• Rhett Lowder
• Max Clark
• Colin Houck
• Brayden Taylor
• Tai Peete

Hmmmm, seems a bit thin huh. I got some chromes of some notable non-1st prospects, but those bother me so not listing them here. I honestly hate the proliferation of prospect cards from year to year. Just print the 1st and wait for the rookie card from there. We don’t need 15 different Druw Jones prospect cards through the years until he hits the show.

Okay rant over, but that said, the notable 1st chromes pulled seems like a thin list. Hopefully some other guys pop in the coming years and this list only grows. Then again, it more than likely will shrink.

Let’s get on to some of the bigger parallels. Each pack contains 2 base chrome refractors. Here are the “notable” refractors I pulled. We will start with the plain old refractors and work from there…

Bowman Chrome Refractors:

• Bryce Eldridge
• Dillon Head
• Blake Mitchell
• Hurston Waldrep
• Charlee Soto
• Druw Jones
• Hao Yu Lee
• Mac Horvath
• Alberto Rios

24 refractors and I did not hit a single big Bowman 1st name. A few nice names here, but missed for the most part. Here are the colored refractors that were serial numbered…

Serial numbered colored refractors:

• Purple Refractor – Zach Levenson & Jack Hurley /250
• Fuchsia Lunar Refractor Parallel – Tre’ Morgan /199

This was it for the serial numbered chrome cards. There was also a Brayden Taylor Draft Picks & Prospects insert that was a regular refractor numbered to /250, but other than that this was it for Chrome serial numbered parallel cards. Again, a lack of big names and low numbering on the serials? This break isn’t going great so far.

I also received a serial numbered orange paper parallel of Dyan Jorge. It is numbered to /25, so I got that goin’ for me! Based on previous listings via eBay, pretty sure this fetches under $10.

Now, onto the Autographs, where the real money is counted! Except for this break unfortunately. It was a very mediocre to below average group. Below I will break down the hits for the autographs with a little scouting report.

Carson Roccaforte – Kansas City Royals
Age: 21
Position: OF
H/W: 6’1″/195
B/T: L/L

Taken with the 66th pick in the 2023 draft as a comp B pick for the Royals, Carson spent some time with their Class A affiliate in the Carolina League. He hit for okay average in the small sample size but more concerning was the 30% K rate. I think I saw a high end comp being Benintendi, which is not incredible. The current eBay sold listings for his cards reflect this fact. They seem to be settling in around the $10 mark all-in for this specific insert auto. He ranks fairly low on the teams top 30 lists for the moment. I need a big 2024 from the guy!

Alberto Rios – Los Angeles Angels
Age: 21
Position: 3B
H/W: 6’0/203 Lbs
B/T: R/R

Taken with the 79th pick of the 2023 Draft by the Los Angeles Angels, Alberto did not hit that well in his small samples size of A ball this past season. He does have some plate discipline and a good approach so we wait and see. He seems to curry some favor among the scouts as he sits in the top 10 of most Angels prospect rankings, so holding out some hope that we see some pop from him this season. This card is a refractor and the only numbered auto I received in the box. All of this said, the most we can probably expect to get for this one is around $20 at the moment based on similar sales. Once again, woof!

Cole Foster – San Francisco Giants
Age: 22
Position: SS
H/W: 6’1″/193 Lbs
B/T: S/R

Taken with the 85th pick in the 2023 draft, Cole projects as a utility guy for the most part. Again, we will see what happens with the hit tool over time, but another sub-optimal autograph. Cole’s sold prices have been nessling in right around the $10-$15 range. Are you starting to see a trend here?

Conclusion

I hate to project an overly negative viewpoint on this product, however I do believe I did not open the worst box I have seen yet. I have seen a few others that were downright terrible. That said, for $525 you can do a lot more for your collection. I got just over $100 of value out of a $525 box. Something is broken here and it’s possible that it’s me for even wanting to buy this stuff. What’s more concerning is my result is starting to seem like the norm for breaks that I have watched. 2023 Bowman Draft, in my humble opinion, is the ultimate gamble. A gamble with very long odds.

There was a time when this product sold for a box price around $100. That seems more fair for a product of unproven players. I know, prospecting is a gamble and an investment. I understand this facet of the hobby, but there are limits. I get why premium products like Topps Gilded and Definitive move for the prices they command, but this is closer to a flagship product than a premium product. All of this said, if people buy it, and the product doesn’t sit, the prices will keep going up.

In the meantime, wanna read something crazy about 2023 Bowman Draft? Check this out!

Until next time, thanks for reading and enjoy your collecting!