Bowman hits the court with Draft Picks & Stars Basketball, a product that is really two brands in one. Each six-card pack contains four Bowman cards and two Bowman Chrome cards, featuring NBA stars of the present and future.
Hobby boxes of 2007-08 Bowman Draft Picks & Stars Basketball roll out with 18 packs, and collectors can expect to find one rookie autograph and two relic cards (Topps' name for memorabilia cards) per box on average.
Base Cards and Parallels
There's an absolute hoops feel to the Draft Picks & Stars base cards, as they incorporate an orange frame that looks like the top of the key inside a black border. That doesn't leave as much room for the actual photo as on a lot of today's cards, and it is somewhat reminiscent of some sets from the 90's.
The Bowman cards have the player name in silver foil at the bottom and the position in the upper-right corner. Card backs are laid out horizontally and have very informative write-ups for each player.
White borders are the main twist for the Chrome cards, and it makes the design work a little better. In both versions, there are a total of 110 veterans and 50 rookies numbered to 2999.
Topps includes several levels of parallels that are different for both sets. Bowman gets Bronze (numbered to 399), Silver (#'d to 199) and Gold (#'d to 99), while Bowman Chrome gets five types of Refractors with numbering ranging from 299 down to one.
With twice as many regular cards as Chrome cards in each pack, the Chrome set is obviously the tougher one to put together. In a sample box I opened, I found 63 Bowman and 30 Bowman Chrome veteran cards, plus two Bowman and four Bowman Chrome rookies. I also pulled four total parallels, the best of which was a Gold Brandan Wright.
Autographed Cards
Since several of this season's rookies signed exclusive autograph deals with another company, Topps got 40 of the 50 rookies to sign for this product - including their own exclusives Brandan Wright and Greg Oden. The Bowman Chrome Rookie Refractor Autos fall one per box and are numbered to 599, with lower numbered parallel versions also in the mix.
The cards use sticker autographs but they are well-designed and fairly unobtrusive. My box produced a signature from Celtics second-rounder Gabe Pruitt.
Relic Cards
Topps created relic cards for rookies, veterans and retired players to use in Draft Picks & Stars. Bowman Relics show off a piece of game-used or event-worn gear from one of 50 different players, and dual and triple versions bump that number up to two and three swatches respectively.
The About.com review box held the expected two relics: a single relic of Sean Williams and a triple relic of Al Horford numbered to 99.
The Last Word
Bowman Draft Picks & Stars Basketball has some nice elements, and the inclusion of Bowman Chrome cards has worked for Topps in other sports. But squeezing two sets into one product seems like it makes it a little too hard for collectors to put together either one, and the numbered rookies are harder to pull than their baseball and football brethren.
Add in a design which is a little more cramped than most Bowman layouts and the end result is a solid but not spectacular release priced toward the lower end of the market.