Tigers Checklist: 2009 Bowman Sterling

Is Bowman Sterling a high-end set? I ask honestly because I actually like the way these cards look but, from a Tigers perspective at least, there is not much "meat" if I were to open a box of this stuff. Basically, I've got shiny, fancy rookie cards for all of my new Tiger favorites as well as a sticker autograph of the second best player in his Tiger rookie class, plus a dual auto of said player with a prospect who will not amount to anything. Oh, and Fu-Te Ni in WBC garb, hopefully for the last time.

Bottom line is that these cards all seem nice, but the last google search I did showed this going for $215 per box at blowout, and that was the cheapest by far. Um, no thanks. With that, here are some pretty pictures of cards that I will never get my hands on.

Base Set I think that I dig these by and large, and the refractors (in all their multi-colored iterations) look quite nice. Small set, all rookies, all recognizable names for Tigers fans. For some reason Alfredo Figaro is listed as a "Prospect" here, complete with a different card numbering format and no RC logo. Not sure what that's all about. I particularly like Alex Avila wearing his goofy catcher's helmet forward.

#BS-AA Alex Avila RC	#BS-FN Fu-Te Ni RC	#BS-RP Rick Porcello RC
#BS-WR Wilkin Ramirez RC	#BSP-AF Alfredo Figaro

Relics and Autographs Just three cards [ed. four cards--missed the Cabrera WBC, whoops!] here, so I thought I'd stick them all in one row. The Ryan Perry autograph is numbered #BS-RP--the same as the Porcello base card, just in case you felt like being confused. The dual auto would be nice if we didn't have to suffer Cale Iorg, now the Tigers third best shortstop prospect. These are meh in my opinion. Give me a couple refractor base cards and I'll be fine, thanks.

#BS-RP Ryan Perry RC Auto	#DA-RPCI Ryan Perry/Cale Iorg Auto	#BCR-FN Fu-Te Ni WBC Relic
#BCR-MC Miguel Cabrera RC Relic Ref. (#/199)

I'll reserve additional commentary on this set because I just don't have to say too much about it. It seems fine. If you buy it, I hope you enjoy it. I like having nice, shiny, rookie cards of Tigers, so at least there's that. Still, I can get a Ryan Perry auto in regular Topps for like, $2, or a Ryan Perry ON CARD Auto in T-206 for about the same, so there really isn't much that makes these stand out. Personally, I'll pass (but then--sacrilege alert--I've never really liked anything that Bowman has put out. They just don't do it for me, although I keep an open mind each time.)