Over the last few years, I have always wondered what people see in Bowman Sterlng. The price point is borderline insanity, and the cards have never been all that good looking. This year, I had hi hopes considering what tops has been able to do with some of their other sets, but after seeing some of the previews released on twitter today, I’m torn.

First, in terms of the box hit rookie auto jerseys, I very much like that they chose. The horizontal orientation gives a lot more room for player pictures compared to last years disasters, and the futuristic Star Trek like design gets the geek in me to like them even more. However, with a sticker auto,the design isn’t as impressive. I a product that costs as much as Sterling does, that is unacceptable.

Also, the use of the Panini big white box looks terrible on the base non jersey autos. Considering how the rest of these types of cards in Platinum and Chrome were signed on card, I have absolutely no clue why they are stickers for this set. It costs almost quadruple what chrome costs per box, and there doesn’t seem to be any on card content. No clue why that is.

I have said that Bowman Sterling is a completely unnecessary product in a sport that is already laden with high end set after high end set. If Topps really wants to wow collectors, this is not the way. Pack prices are ridiculous for what little content is contained, not to mention the presence of a usually weak checklist of scrubs and crappy jerseys. If they slapped a Panini logo on this product, I really wouldnt know the difference.

Here are the pictures: