My Best Collection

Today's post deals with my best collection.

Not best in the sense of greatest or most awesome.

Instead, I'm referring to

Bowman's Best.

This is a brand that came and went during the time I wasn't collecting, though it has recently been brought back from the dead.  It was typically a smaller set, so when I came back and started grabbing different brands, Bowman's Best was left behind.

It is left behind no more.

Bowman's Best arrived on the scene in 1994, at the tail end of the junk wax era.  It survived the downturn after the 1994 strike and was issued each year through 2005.  Towards the end Topps added more gimmicks, things like short-prints and autographed rookie cards as part of the main set.  None of that helped to save it.

In 2012 it came back as an insert set with regular Bowman.  Three years later, a full blown set was released and has been each of the two following years.

There are a total of 94 Cubs cards over the fifteen different releases.  Familiar names from the era are in abundance, guys like Grace, Sosa, Wood, and Prior.  You'll also see unknown prospects like Bobby Brownlie, Kevin Collins, and Jason Szuminski.

I spent an evening a couple weeks ago tracking down all 94 of the cards on Sportlots.  I try to minimize the number of sellers I use to save on shipping, so it took some time. In the end I found all but four, and those were just a couple clicks away on eBay.

My plan is to show a particular season once I have all of the cards from that year in hand.  The mailman and my scanner have been busy and I'll have my first year up tomorrow.

For the curious, here is the entire Bowman's Best Cubs rundown:

1994	9	Mark Grace
	5	Brooks Kieschnick
	58	Randy Myers
	71	Kevin Orie
	70	Sammy Sosa
1995	19	Mark Grace
	12	Brooks Kieschnick
	35	Sammy Sosa
1996	89	Mark Grace
	175	Robin Jennings
	113	Brooks Kieschnick
	180	Kevin Orie
	8	Ryne Sandberg
	48	Sammy Sosa
	146	Amaury Telemaco
1997	173	Brant Brown
	123	Pat Cline
	16	Mark Grace
	55	Brian McRae
	195	Kevin Orie
	8	Ryne Sandberg
	83	Sammy Sosa
	154	Kerry Wood
1998	30	Mark Grace
	42	Kevin Orie
	87	Sammy Sosa
	125	Kerry Wood
1999	176	Roosevelt Brown
	61	Mark Grace
	182	Phil Norton
	159	Corey Patterson
	66	Sammy Sosa
	91	Sammy Sosa
	26	Kerry Wood
	96	Kerry Wood
2000	157	Ben Christensen
	188	Scott Downs
	25	Mark Grace
	110	Corey Patterson
	50	Sammy Sosa
	90	Sammy Sosa
2001	193	Antoine Cameron
	173	Hee Seop Choi
	194	J.J. Johnson
	155	Luis Montanez
	106	Corey Patterson
	25	Sammy Sosa
	83	Kerry Wood
	119	Julio Zuleta
2002	18	Moises Alou
	96	Ryan Gripp
	115	Nic Jackson
	13	Mark Prior
	66	Sammy Sosa
2003	MB	Matt Bruback
	BH	Brendan Harris Autograph
	FB	Felix Pie Autograph
	MP	Mark Prior
	FS	Felix Sanchez Autograph
	SS	Sammy Sosa
	AW	Aron Weston Autograph
2004	BB	Bobby Brownlie Autograph
	JJC	Jon Connolly
	MDC	Matt Creighton Autograph
	NAG	Nomar Garciaparra
	AG	Adam Greenberg Autograph
	RN	Ricky Nolasco Autograph
	MWP	Mark Prior
	SS	Sammy Sosa
	JSZ	Jason Szuminski Autograph
2005	136	Buck Coats Autograph
	71	Kevin Collins
	24	Nomar Garciaparra
	79	Sean Marshall
	35	Casey McGehee
	29	Mark Prior
	92	Andy Santana
	131	Brandon Sing Autograph
2012	BBP7	Brett Jackson
2015	16	Jake Arrieta
	50	Kris Bryant
	24	Anthony Rizzo
	6	Addison Russell
	93	Jorge Soler
2016	2	Albert Almora
	41	Jake Arrieta
	65	Kris Bryant
	51	Willson Contreras
	44	Anthony Rizzo
	64	Kyle Schwarber
	28	Ben Zobrist
2017	50	Kris Bryant
	38	Ian Happ
	35	Anthony Rizzo