Bowman Chrome X - ( The Underestimated Topps product parallel) Bowman Oddities #3

 

In a wide range of Topps products there are always some of them that are long lasting and with a lot of following in the collectors universe. Enter Bowman Chrome X! Topps introduced this product with the intention of offering the xfractor treatment into the Bowman Chrome household, Xfractors are a exclusive parallel always known to be out into the Topps Chrome issues for the longest of times. The introduction came in 2019 in the form of the Bowman Chrome checklist, online exclusive and only 1 card per box.  On October 28th 2019, Topps partnered with the company StockX with them offering it as an "IPO" (Initial Product Offering) were they were auction off on the StockX website.

2019 Bowman Chrome X Box

There were 1,100 boxes available and the structure of getting one was that the customer was going to set the price in the application, a blind bid if you can say that. After the IPO was established people would pay based on the 1,100 bid price. They only took 1,100 bids based on production for the boxes, last bid would stated the price that selected bidders would pay per each box or case. For case bidding the were only 400 cases available in the same bidding frenzy. A total of 100 cards for the set, 65 1st Bowman prospects and 35 MLB rookies. Green prospects and rookies were serial to /31. All of them were PSA graded and Topps guaranteed you could get no lower than a PSA 9 and with some of them been PSA 10's. There were no autographs in the 2019 edition of this boxes.

2019 Bowman Chrome X Pete Alonso Rookie /31

2020 Bowman Chrome X release promotion.

2020 Bowman Chrome X were same as 2019, no autographs and sold on StockX online exclusive, same as the year before this release. Checklist was composed of 39 rookies and 61 prospects for a total of 100 cards for the complete set. Same green parallels were /31 copies per each player, the new twist to this was the newest Gold Xfractors /3 copies per player and the Red Xfractors witch were 1/1's.Changing from 2019, the DropX release has tiered pricing with a certain number of boxes/cases allocated at each level. This means those buying first get the lowest price. That should be $70 per box and $350 per case on the low end and up to $110 per box and $550 per case on the high end.

2021 Bowman Chrome X Promotion.

2021 Bowman Chrome X ,These boxes are now sold directly from the Topps store. Whereas 2020 and 2019 had PSA-graded cards, the 2021 edition only mentions "encased" cards. Although the box received a price increase , these were not graded. In addition to Red (#/3) and Gold (1/1) X-Fractor parallels, one new addition is the limited Bowman Chrome X autograph insert, numbered to just five copies. To me this was a huge addition as we are always in the hunt for ink on our chrome cardboard. Checklist included 47 rookies and 53 prospects, making this a very rookie loaded product in comparison to other years.

2022 Bowman Chrome X Promotion.

This last released in my opinion was largely passed by a lot of collectors, not that the checklist is bad, I think the overload of Topps products killed what ever fan this product had in my honest opinion. This product was once again Topps online exclusive and matching the same price as the 2021 edition it came with a $149.99 price tag. Parallel color configurations changed, Orange new comer is /5 copies, Red to /3 copies and Gold 1/1's were all randomly inserted. Autographs stayed the same with only 5 copies per prospects with the difference that the color was green, 2021 featured Purple as the color for the signed prospects cards.

To my conclusion, I do think this cards are way unappreciated and the refractor pattern is part of the global Topps refractor line that should not be excluded for been an new introduction to Bowman since 2019. As time passes by I could see a cult following for this issues as they are that rare! Quality issues have played a part of these cards the last 2 years, have seen many autos from 2021 with corner issues and surface as well, people like to get their money's worth for something new, clean and without any damage. Since Fanatics took over, there is talk they are going to cut a lot of products to make way for new and improved ones, this one is one of those that I saw in a Topps memo that would not survive the cut. Hopefully Fanatics reconsiders and makes improvements to it, it would be a shame if this goes to the Topps graveyard without giving the tender care it sorely deserves!