Opening a 2026 Bowman Baseball Blaster box
Time to see what the $ and the hype gets us.....
As I’m pivoting toward buying more Bowman and Chrome cards, and maintaining my current budget, I decided to take a stab at the 2026 Bowman set. I went for a Value Box, 60 total cards, 10 cards in each of 6 packs. I paid $41.03 with shipping to Topps directly for this, 68 cents a card cost.
This is a 100 card set, with a 150-card set of Prospects alongsides. According to sportscardpro, there are already sales of these:DeLauter, Misiorowski, McLean, Ohtani, Caglianone and Acuna. Counting variants, Muramaki, Roman, Cole Young, Payton Tolle, Gunnar, Schlittler, Judge, Burns among others also have sales.
Not that I should care about prices right now, what with the volatility that accompanies every new box. But boy howdy, when an early sale occurs, it does make a nice impression. I’ll point out the big ones as we go, if we find them.
Pack 1:
Paper Prospects and 1sts:
Wehiwa Aloy $5 Looking good 2nd year in pro ball, for High A Frederick.
Moises Chace got some notice on prospect lists. In the minors since 2021, playing for AA Reading, with good stats as he’s ever come up with.
Owen Carey is with High-A Rome for Atlanta.
Chrome and 1sts:
Luis Cova in his 3rd year with the Marlins franchise, still in the Rookie league, specifically the Florida Complex League.
Dauri Fernandez is currently at single A ball at Hill City for the Guardians.
Chrome Top 100 at #77: Felnin Celesten. He was on Top 100 lists for Baseball America and MLB. Starting this season with High A ball at Everett for the Mariners, hitting .339/.448/.508
Camera shy base cards: Yamamoto, Riley Greene, Geraldo Perdomo, Jackson Holliday
Pack 2
Paper Prospects
Walker Jenkins is still a very highly regarded prospect, and I still have his 2024 Topps Pro Debut auto, tho it’s out for grading right now. He’s nearly on par with his lifetime pro stats, hitting at AAA St. Paul for the Twins. He might finally get that callup this season.
Arjun Nimmala also made multiple prospect lists. He’s already played for both High A and AA within the Blue Jays franchise this season. Won’t be surprised to see him elevated to AAA later this year.
Anthony Frobose, also 1st $3 Started the season in the Rookie league, within the FCL. Not Brooklyn just yet, which I believe is still the low level for the team. I’ve been to a Cyclones game, and it was rather nice.
Chrome and 1st
Brent Iredale The Aussie native is also in the FCL this season for the Pirates and looking good doing so, so far.
Edgar Montero is with single A Stockton for the Athletics, tho not nearly at the level he was last year.
Nolan McLean in Chrome AND the slightly rare Red RC format. Apparently there’s 20k of these type of RC cards per player. One already sold on eBay for $42. If that’s legit, then this card has already paid for the box!!
Base cards of Springer, Merrill, Fried, Witt Jr.
Pack 3:
Paper Prospects:
Carson Benge did break through with the Mets this season, and is full-time, playing all OF positions. Currently .237/296/.344/
Carlos Virahonda (1st) started the year at single-A Visalia for Arizona.
Andrew Fischer (1st) $5 Top 100 by Baseball Prospectus, and played for Italy in the WBC. He’s at High-A for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers for the Brewers. That’s Appleton, WI.
Base RCs:
Teel broke through to the show last year for the White Sox. Currently in AAA Charlotte. I feel he won’t be down for long.
Cags! No explanation necessary.
Bubba! I’m still repping him after getting a nice hit from a 2021 set. Currently a bit worse than 2025 stat-wise, and actually leads the league in BBs allowed. He’s kept the hit count low, tho.
YeSAVAGE $6 Comparable stats to his debut last September. Get the popcorn when he’s on the mound. Or whatever you have in Canada.
Chrome:
Josuar Gonzalez is on multiple prospect lists. In the Rookie League in the ACL (not the injury, the Arizona Complex League), for the Giants. Expect good things pretty soon for the 18-year-old.
Lombard Jr. may be next to break for the Yankees. Started the season in AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, then AA at Somerset and hitting rather well there.
Electric Sluggers card of Tatis Jr.
Pack 4
Paper Prospects
Felnin Celestin again
Andrew Salas is in his 2nd season with Jupiter (as opposed to on or in) FL, for the Marlins. Hasn’t broken .200 yet tho.
Wilder Dalis (1st) at 19, in his 4th pro ball year for the Rockies org., Started this year at single-A Fresno, tho has yet to impress beyond his rookie league stats.
Chrome:
Charles Davalan started 2026 with the Great Lakes Loons of Midland MI for the Dodgers (kinda random, that).
Jean Carlos Sio (1st) split time this year so far with the Giants Rookie League in Arizona, and the Eugene Emeralds (Eugene OR, that is) for the Giants at High A.
Chrome Top 100 #93 of Wei-En Lin. $7 already. Pitched in the WBC for Chinese Taipei, and is in AA Midland TX for the Athletics, good stats to book (2-0, 1.85 ERA, in 7 starts, 34 IP).
Base cards: Soto, Skubal, Julio, Seager
Pack 5
Paper:
Marek Houston 1st
Dillon Lewis 1st
Kaelen Culpepper
Chrome:
Juan Sanchez 1st at age 25 is once again at AAA Sacramento, and hopefully breaks through this season.
Reptilian Refractor of Keyner Martinez (1st) $3 Started the year at single A San Jose for the Giants.
Gorgeous Under The Radar insert card of Caleb Bonemer. Started the year at High A Winston-Salem for the Chisox (do other collectors still call them the Chisox?). Pretty solid stats for his first 2 years in pro ball.
Base cards of PCA, Jacob Wilson, McCutchen, Vlad Jr.
Last pack!
RCs:
The password is....shhhhhh......
Chase!
Freeland
Eldridge, one of my 2026 breakout choices.
Paper:
Xavier Neyens, just starting his pro ball career this season, at single A Fayetteville for Houston.
Braden Montgomery is another highly regarded prospect. 4th year at the pro level, played at AAA for the first time at Charlotte for the White Sox, then at AA Birmingham. He also looks ready to break.
Kehden Hettiger (1st) started 2026 at AA Reading for the Phillies tho his lifetime pro stats leave much to be desired.
Chrome:
Colt Emerson is getting close to the majors, with decent stats for AAA Tacoma this year, a little less than his AA Everett numbers. Still might be a year away.
Caden Scarborough 1st $5 Impressive pro stats thus far (2.93 ERA in 28 lifetime games, just under 100 IP), still at Hickory single-A ball for the Rangers.
We close with a GORGEOUS Bowman Sterling insert RC card of Roman
Not a rare card, maybe 1 to a blaster. I see a sale of $15 already. I mean, isn’t this card gorgeous? Have I used this word too much? I mean, it’s like a dollar bill or a stock certificate from the 1940s. Immaculate. There’s a good word.
I’d call this rip a winner with those 2 big cards and the few underneath those, volatility be darned.
What’s next? I’ll offer my take on Topps Series 2, as I have preordered a hobby box for June.
I also probably downshift from buying boxes while I continue to work eBay and see how to get most of these lots sold. So far, not much interest. I haven’t paid for promotion, but I might need to.