2013 Bowman Platinum Value Pack recap

I guess I'll buy my share of unopened packs / blasters but I hate paying retail to the tune of $10-$20 for so little cards - ideally I'd prefer hand collated sets or even lots I can find on eBay perhaps.

Purple Refractor pack
#BPCP 74 Lucas Giolito
#BPCP 85 Trevor Story
#BPCP 11 Mike Zunino

Pack one

#BPP 48 Kaleb Cowart
#64 Joey Votto
#DIR-BV Breyvic Valera - Diamonds in the Rough insert
#BPP 76 Austin Hedges

Pack two
#BPP 77 Matt Davidson
#CES-FH Felix Hernandez - Cutting Edge Stars insert
#91 Darin Ruf
#BPP 68 Hak-Ju Lee

Pack three
#BPP 28 Jorge Soler
#BPCP 75 Daniel Vogelbach - Green parallel serial #'d 222/399

#TP-GP Gregory Polanco - Top Prospects insert
#54 Josh Hamilton

2011 Bowman Platinum Value Pack recap

2011 Bowman Platinum value pack [$8.99 each at a Target] - I was looking for a cardboard fix, so I tried another 2011 Bowman Platinum value pack.

Pack one - the cards are facing from the back.
#66 Dustin Pedroia
#58 Clayton Kershaw
#BPP 71 Johermyn Chavez - x-fractor
Filler card
#2 of 2 Checklist

Pack two
#55 Michael Pineda

#45 Torii Hunter
#BPP 55 David Cooper
Filler card
#64 Hunter Pence

Pack three
#53 David Ortiz

#65 Albert Pujols
#BPP 96 Christian Colon - x-fractor
Filler card
#17 Ryan Braun
#2 of 2 Checklist

Purple refractor pack
#BPP 18 Zack Cox
#BPP 28 Shaeffer Hall

#BPP 91 Kaleb Cowart

Featured autograph - Kaleb Cowart

A 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Kaleb Cowart autographed card serial #'d 4/100 [$10.99 plus $2.50 s/h on Ebay] arrived in the box Saturday - I felt compelled to pick it up for my Angels collection because I want to get early cards of future Angels' players.

Cowart was a pitcher / infielder from a high school in Georgia - but looks to be a switch-hitting position player as a professional.

Featured autograph - Mark Trumbo

With the Angels' high profile draft pick Kaleb Cowart signed up, it maybe time to look back at another high school bonus baby the Angels signed back in 2004 - Mark Trumbo was touted like Cowart was, a potential future star in the Angels' system.

While Trumbo has steadily climbed the minor league ranks, he is currently a 24-year old who may or may not get a cup of coffee with the Angels in 2010 - it might not be inconceivable to think Cowart may spend as much as five years in the minors and still not get to the Major Leagues.

I picked up his first certified autograph four years ago - while not letter-for-letter, the autograph is more legible on the certified autograph card from 2004, compared to the in-person autograph I got in-person this past year in spring training.