2007 Bowman Heritage Box

Or: The Slowest Box Break Ever

Ok. I got my box. Didn't have to sell an organ or shake down old ladies for money either. I had enough saved up for a box already, this is one of the sets I always plan on getting. The owner at the shop asked if I wanted to get two in case the price went up. Um, right. This is the product that is usually still on the shelf 4 months later at a discount. I'll take my chances. Besides, Topps used up all their squirrelly gimmicks on that crap they just released.

Here's the deal with this box. As much as I want to rip open this box right now in an orgy of cardboard and flying wrappers, I'm not gonna do it. There are two reasons why this box wasn't halfway opened by the time I got it to the car. First, this is the last product I'm really looking forward to until next February. It's slim pickings as far as I'm concerned after this until '08 so I'm going to savor it. I might get bored and go back and get some UD Artifacts or Masterpieces, or God forbid, get caught up in '52 Rookies, but this is it as far as a set I really want this year. More importantly though, I have about a dozen or so drafts of posts sitting in my queue that I've been too lazy to finish and I'm forcing myself to do it now. This box is the carrot that will get my mule ass in gear. I'm not even allowing myself to take the plastic off the box until I get my overdue 2008 Topps review finished. I have the whole thing in my head, I've just been too distracted to type it out. Expect that tonight or tomorrow followed almost immediately by the Bowman box toppers. After that, I'm only going to open one pack per post I get out of draft and into published status. All those Topps U&H pack breaks, original Allen and Ginter cards, Red Sox tribute posts and the rest are getting out of my queue an on this blog before I open the last pack from this box. Of course I can always simply post about the box itself first...

Topps used a shoebox setup for the box this year. The owner at the card shop didn't like it because it took up too much real estate on the counter, but I think it's pretty cool. The design on the box and wrapper is the same as from the original '52 set with updated dates and logos.

I'm thrilled because Topps included a generic Boston Brave as their official mascot of 2007 Bowman Heritage.

I thought it might have been catcher Walker Cooper at first, but after looking through my '52 Braves cards, I'm leaning more towards reliever Sheldon "Available" Jones.

The bottom is pretty nondescript other than the Relic and Auto Groupings. The typical Copyright, website and legalese stuff. A-Rod Waste of Space autograph cards are one in 773 boxes. Whoopee. I was interested in comparing the player groupings for the hits and the odds for each grouping on the back of the wrapper. Yeah, wrapper, I did buy one pack along with the box to post on A Pack A Day. I'm not going to completely deny myself. The very first thing I noticed is the odds on the wrapper for Autos are probably wrong. Odds for a card from Group B is the easiest at 1:47, and the only player in Group B on the box bottom is Chipper Jones. While I am all for having a Chipper Jones Auto hit in one out of two boxes, I'm thinking Larry didn't sign 180,000 cards for this product. I think what happened with the Auto odds is either the groups or the odds got printed in reverse order with Group A actually having the odds for Group H. David Wright autos packing out one in 337 boxes makes more sense than if it was one in 339 packs. The prospects in groups F and G are probably the easiest pulls. The Relic odds look to be correct with Rocco Baldelli being the tough pull for some reason. It looks like Bonds relics will be somewhat obtainable. Interesting. Odds are below, click to enlarge.

That's all for now until I get that '08 review out...