Review: 2007 Bowman's Best Baseball

Bowman's Best isn't a new brand for Topps, but it is returning after sitting out the 2006 season. The 2007 set borrows some elements from other successful brands but also ups the ante with a total of nine autographed cards per hobby box.

Hobby boxes of 2007 Bowman's Best Baseball contain three mini-boxes, each of which holds five packs of five cards. Collectors should find one veteran autograph, one rookie autograph, one prospect autograph, one regular prospect card and one MLB Rookie Card in every mini-box.

The base cards in Bowman's Best Baseball make use of Topps' Tribute technology this year - which was used in its own brand in the past. What that means is cards that feature an action photo set against a shiny silver background that has a kind of rainbow effect when light hits it from different angles.

The card stock is also very thick and sturdy. Simply put, if you were a complete beginner, this is the way you'd expect premium cards to look and feel.

A total of 51 Major League Baseball veterans lead off the base set, with 33 players appearing on standard cards and 18 players appearing along with their autographs. The autographed base cards aren't numbered but are subject to Topps' usual tier system.

Making things a little confusing, 11 players - including Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols - have autographed variation cards. That means their unsigned card is considered a base card while the autographed version is a parallel. Other unsigned veterans have four levels of parallels ranging from Green (numbered to 299) to Red (1-of-1).

I opened a pair of mini-boxes for this review and found the following veteran base cards:

Mini-Box 1: 20 regular veterans, Cole Hamels autograph

Mini-Box 2: 19 regular veterans, Jonathan Papelbon autograph, plus a special card commemorating A-Rod's 500th career home run

Like the veterans, 2007 rookies also come in regular and autographed varieties. There's also a special relic (memorabilia) card for Red Sox rookie hurler Daisuke Matsuzaka, who signed an exclusive autograph agreement with another company.

The 30 non-signed rookies are numbered to 799 and the 18 signed cards are unnumbered. As with the veterans, the non-autographed cards come in four parallel levels with varied numbering and some of the regular rookies signed some variation cards. Though all of these cards sport the official MLB Rookie Card logo, keep in mind that some players have had cards in sets from previous seasons, meaning they will not be considered true rookie cards by many collectors.

In my two review mini-boxes I found the following rookies:

Mini-Box 1: Delmon Young 397/799, Hideki Okajima autograph

Mini-Box 2: Josh Fields 390/799, Andrew Miller autograph

Bowman's Best doesn't forget prospect collectors, supplying them with regular cards and autographed versions of some top up-and-coming baseball talent. Included in the set are the likes of Luke Hochevar, Joba Chamberlain, Evan Longoria and Jeff Samardzija.

Both signed and unsigned prospect cards use a horizontal format and are numbered separately from the base set. Regular prospects are numbered to 499 with the same parallel levels as the base cards.

The About.com sample mini-boxes yielded the following prospect cards:

Mini-Box 1: Blue Aaron Cunningham 06/99, Fernando Martinez autograph

Mini-Box 2: Blue Jeremy Papelbon 53/99, Emmanuel Burris autograph

Bowman's Best Baseball certainly benefited from its brief hiatus. This seems like a good use for the Tribute technology, the autographed content is excellent and the mini-box format also makes perfect sense for this product.

There's no game-used component, but for all other baseball collectors this feels like a set that is firing on all cylinders. Whether your budget can fit a mini-box or an entire box, 2007 Bowman's Best should not disappoint.