2006 Bowman Sterling Prospects

Set Size: 110 cards, of which 59 are autographed (stickers).

Design Notes: The high-premium set has an ornate design, bright glossy foil, and fairly empty fronts. There's a photo, a giant autograph frame, and the player's last name. The black and white backs have some more details.

Parallels and Similars: There are regular, black, gold, and red refractors, plus encased printing plate parallels. The regular Bowman Sterling set has the same design.

Distribution: Cards were sold in packs of five, with six packs per box. Each box contained at least five relic, autograph, or autographed-relic hits.

Thoughts: As I stated in my last post, I could do without Bowman Sterling. Steven Evarts is probably the worst card in the set at this point - he was a promising pitcher in 2006 but was found using performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Charleston RiverDogs - yes, that's low minor league ball. I think the 2006 design was one of the better Bowman Sterling releases to date, as it's at least a fairly bright design and it scans well. The 2006 release has a few big names, including Evan Longoria and Prince Fielder.

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2006 Upper Deck Ovation Nation - Independence Day Edition

Set size: 15

Front Design: An action shot serves as the background, with the player's national flag overlaid on top of the action photo. A portrait adds a third layer on top of the flag. The WBC logo, set name, player name, country they represented in the WBC, and position all appear on a green-tinted world map.

Back Design: The national flag appears a couple more times, as does the portrait. A small recap of the player's performance in the WBC completes the back.

Parallels and Similars: Four printing plate parallel sets exist, as does a signature parallel for three players.

Distribution: Randomly inserted at 1:19 odds into packs of 2006 Upper Deck Ovation.

Thoughts: The 2006 Ovation insert sets all have attractive designs. This set is a patriotic tribute to WBC players, and certainly a fitting choice for Independence Day! This card came in a recent case break through The Daily Dimwit. If I didn't have too much on my plate, I would try to build a mini-master set of Ovation. Being that this insert set honors the WBC, I need to add it to my Team USA want list.

Additional Images: Blooper time! My scanner auto-finds images when I tell it to scan photos. It can pick out several cards at once, up to all nine cards that I could possibly fit. White space confuses the scanner, though, and white borders and white spaces on cards are troublesome. Every time I scan cards, I have to ensure it kept the whole card and nothing but the whole card, but the preview window is much smaller than it needs to be. I didn't notice this until it was too late:

Why, it's a nice Ken Griffey Jr. patriotic mini! This reminds me of a modern version of those Allen and Ginter minis.

Who needs the rest of the card, anyway?

Happy Independence Day!

2006 Topps Alen & Ginter N43 "The World's Champions"

 Set size: 15 cards

Front Design: A copy of that year's Allen & Ginter mini card design appears on top of background art including leaves, flags, and old-time baseball players relaxing on the grass.

Back Design: The set title and card subject appears at the top beneath the card number, and the entire set checklist commands the majority of the remaining space. The bottom quarter of the card back is filled with logos and legalese.

Parallels and Similars: The Rodriguez and Bonds cards have an autographed parallel (10 copies), while the Pujols and Gibson have 50-copy relic parallels. The N43 set is a minor redesign of the original N43 cards issued in 1888, and is fairly true to the original design and layout.

Distribution: One card was issued in every other hobby box of 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter.

Thoughts: The original set was more varied, including pole vaulters, hammer throwers, club swingers, and pedestrians. Because the originals didn't include a lot of text (just the subject, player, and team), they look more elegant. However, even in its redesigned release here the cards are attractive.

Additional Links: See the Old Cardboard website for additional information on the original N43 set.

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Card Back