The 2023 Topps Bowman baseball card release is one of the most highly anticipated issues of the year. As the annual rookie card release from Topps, Bowman offers baseball card collectors their first chance to obtain cards featuring the top prospects and recent draft picks in the sport. With another exciting new class of young talent entering professional baseball in 2023, this year’s Bowman release is primed to be one of the most valuable in recent memory.
Some of the biggest names collectors will be looking for in the 2023 Topps Bowman set include Druw Jones, the #2 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks and son of former MLB star Andruw Jones. Jones is widely considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball and his rookie cards are sure to be in high demand. Another highly sought-after rookie will be Elijah Green, the #3 overall pick by the Detroit Tigers in 2022. Green has all the tools to be a perennial All-Star and his cards could appreciate significantly over time. 2023 Bowman will also feature cards of Jackson Holliday, the #1 overall pick by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2022 draft. Holliday’s pedigree as the son of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday makes him one of the most marketable young stars in the sport.
In addition to featuring the biggest names from the 2022 draft class, 2023 Topps Bowman also provides collectors their first chance to obtain cards of international prospects and players signed out of Latin America in 2022. Names like Dominican shortstop Omar de Los Santos (Blue Jays) and Venezuelan outfielder Gabriel Rodriguez (Rays) are likely to attract attention. The set will also include prospects signed in previous international classes like Dominican shortstop Robert Puason (Braves), who signed for $5.9 million in 2020. With the increasing emphasis MLB teams are putting on Latin American talent pipelines, these internationally signed prospects hold tremendous long-term value potential.
When it comes to the base set, collectors can expect to find the standard assortment of parallels, inserts and autograph/memorabilia cards they’ve come to expect from Topps Bowman over the years. The base set will feature around 350 prospects divided across Series 1 and Series 2 releases. In addition to the base rookies, collectors will hunt colorful parallels like Gold, Rainbow Foil, Refractors and more. Serialized short prints and 1/1 printing plates ensure rarer chase cards exist. Insert sets in 2023 Bowman are also highly anticipated, with Top Prospects, Future Phenoms and Born to Hit among the popular subsets likely to return. Autograph and memorabilia cards of the top prospects are the true gems of any Bowman release and pull rates are kept low to preserve value.
While the base set, inserts and hits are exciting on their own, one of the biggest storylines surrounding 2023 Topps Bowman is the return of the coveted Paper edition. Absent since 2020 due to production issues caused by the pandemic, the return of Paper Bowman is a boon for collectors. Featuring the same prospect content as the base Bowman release but printed on traditional paper stock, Paper Bowman parallels and serial numbered cards command a sizable premium. Pulling a rare 1/1 parallel autograph from Paper Bowman puts collectors in possession of a true blue-chip prospect card. Given the two year absence, demand for Paper Bowman is expected to be through the roof in 2023.
Release date details for 2023 Topps Bowman are still forthcoming, but the Series 1 release typically arrives in late March/early April with Series 2 following in late May or June. Both Series 1 and Series 2 will be available in traditional wax packs, boxes, hobby boxes and special collector’s editions. Retail Megas, Blaster boxes and value Hangar packs ensure the set is widely accessible while high-end products like Autograph Boxes, Memorabilia Boxes and 1/1 Case Breaks cater to the high-end collector segment. With such a strong class of rookies and the return of Paper Bowman, 2023 Topps Bowman is poised to be one of the most significant issues in the modern era when it comes to the collectibility and long-term value of its rookie cards. It’s sure to be a release that baseball card collectors everywhere have circled on their calendars.
