Brett Wallach 2009 Bowman Draft Prospects #BDPP74

Card Review: B  This card isn't bad.  It's a decent design, has MLB logo's, and there's really not much to complain about.  But I don't think anyone needed 21 different variations of it, which if you include the Chrome counterpart set, is what Beckett says there are.  That doesn't include the Topps Pro Debut set, which is in affect, the same photo.  Currently I believe I have four of the 21 variations, and that feels like plenty.  (Not saying I won't accept others if you want to send them)

I can remember when the insert/parallel craze first started to rear it's ugly head in the early 90's.  There was definitely part of me that felt cheated that there weren't three or four variations of Tim Wallach's early cards to chase.  But that quickly faded when it became immediately apparent how difficult it was to chase down a "gold" variation, especially of a player ignorant card shop owners deemed a mere "common."  Granted the internet has made locating cards much easier, and collector's are not all at the mercy of the swindler who runs the corner card shop.

This card is clearly an airbrush job as alluded to above.  I'm 99% certain that the photo on this card is the one that has been altered, but I'd be lying if I said I could tell.  Below are photos of this card and the 2010 Topps Pro Debut card.  Airbrushing has really come a long way in the last three decades.

 


Timeline wise it would make sense that the earlier 2009 Bowman is the unaltered photo.  It's probably not unheard of for high draft picks to pose for photos in the uniform of the team that drafted them.  On the flip side, I imagine Topps has probably developed boiler-plate airbrushing patterns for all the MLB teams.  Changing a Dodger's uniform into an Ogden Raptors uniform probably isn't something they do very often, or ever.  Which is really the only reason I say with some certainty that the Bowman photo is the altered one.  In any event, today's air brushers do incredible work.