1996 Bowman Baseball Cards
Product Details
1996 Bowman Baseball won't win any awards for its rookie selection. In fact, it's among the worst for the brand since it was revived in 1989. But it does reflect changing times in the hobby with more inserts and a full parallel set.
The 1996 Bowman Baseball base set has 385 cards. This is down significantly from 1995, which has 439 and 1994's 682. Still, you'd think that even with the smaller selection that there'd be one or two notable rookie cards in there. But that's not the case. Jose Guillen, Carl Pavano, Raul Ibanez and Mike Cameron are among the best it has to offer.
Topps was fully buying into the prospecting nature of the brand with a couple of new features in 1996 Bowman Baseball. The first is the addition of a "1st Bowman Card" notation on the front of players making their brand debut. It might be small, but it's something that is still used today.
Topps also offered a sort of value insurance for the first time with the product. For $5, collectors could send in for a certificate that said Topps would buy back a complete set in 1999 for $100. Those that took advantage of the offer made out well by today's values.
The full 385-card base set has a foil parallel. These are inserted one per pack. While Topps had Gold parallels for the foil subset cards in 1995, this is the first time for the brand that there's a full parallel set.
1996 Bowman Baseball also has a couple of insert sets. Minor League Player of the Year Candidates is a 15-card set that highlights some of the top players making their way through the MiLB ranks at the time. Two are inserted in each box.
1996 Bowman's Best Preview is a promo set of sorts for the more premium product that came later in the season. Regular versions of the set's 30 cards are inserted 1:12 packs. There are also Refractor (1:24) and Atomic Refractor (1:48) parallels.
Topps paid tribute to Mickey Mantle in many of the 1996 products. This is no exception. Every other box has a Mickey Mantle Commemorative card reprinting his 1952 Bowman card. Number 20 in the set, it's intended to join other Mantle reprints found in 1996 Topps Baseball.
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Checklist
1996 Bowman Baseball Checklist
Base Set Checklist
2 Ray Durham
3 Ivan Rodriguez
4 Fred McGriff
5 Hideo Nomo
6 Troy Percival
7 Moises Alou
8 Mike Stanley
9 Jay Buhner
10 Shawn Green
11 Ryan Klesko
12 Andres Galarraga
13 Dean Palmer
14 Jeff Conine
15 Brian L. Hunter
16 J.T. Snow
17 Larry Walker
18 Barry Larkin
19 Alex Gonzalez
20 Edgar Martinez
21 Mo Vaughn
22 Mark McGwire
23 Jose Canseco
24 Jack McDowell
25 Dante Bichette
26 Wade Boggs
27 Mike Piazza
28 Ray Lankford
29 Craig Biggio
30 Rafael Palmeiro
31 Ron Gant
32 Javy Lopez
33 Brian Jordan
34 Paul O'Neill
35 Mark Grace
36 Matt Williams
37 Pedro Martinez
38 Rickey Henderson
39 Bobby Bonilla
40 Todd Hollandsworth
41 Jim Thome
42 Gary Sheffield
43 Tim Salmon
44 Gregg Jefferies
45 Roberto Alomar
46 Carlos Baerga
47 Mark Grudzielanek
48 Randy Johnson
49 Tino Martinez
50 Robin Ventura
51 Ryne Sandberg
52 Jay Bell
53 Jason Schmidt
54 Frank Thomas
55 Kenny Lofton
56 Ariel Prieto
57 David Cone
58 Reggie Sanders
59 Michael Tucker
60 Vinny Castilla
61 Lenny Dykstra
62 Todd Hundley
63 Brian McRae
64 Dennis Eckersley
65 Rondell White
66 Eric Karros
67 Greg Maddux
68 Kevin Appier
69 Eddie Murray
70 John Olerud
71 Tony Gwynn
72 David Justice
73 Ken Caminiti
74 Terry Steinbach
75 Alan Benes
76 Chipper Jones
77 Jeff Bagwell
78 Barry Bonds
79 Ken Griffey Jr.
80 Roger Cedeno
81 Joe Carter
82 Henry Rodriguez
83 Jason Isringhausen
84 Chuck Knoblauch
85 Manny Ramirez
86 Tom Glavine
87 Jeffrey Hammonds
88 Paul Molitor
89 Roger Clemens
90 Greg Vaughn
91 Marty Cordova
92 Albert Belle
93 Mike Mussina
94 Garret Anderson
95 Juan Gonzalez
96 John Valentin
97 Jason Giambi
98 Kirby Puckett
99 Jim Edmonds
100 Cecil Fielder
101 Mike Aldrete
102 Marquis Grissom
103 Derek Bell
104 Raul Mondesi
105 Sammy Sosa
106 Travis Fryman
107 Rico Brogna
108 Will Clark
109 Bernie Williams
110 Brady Anderson
111 Torii Hunter
112 Derek Jeter
113 Mike Kusiewicz RC
114 Scott Rolen
115 Ramon Castro
116 Jose Guillen RC
117 Wade Walker RC
118 Shawn Senior
119 Onan Masaoka RC
120 Marlon Anderson RC
121 Katsuhiro Maeda RC
122 Garrett Stephenson RC
123 Butch Huskey
124 D'Angelo Jimenez RC
125 Tony Mounce RC
126 Jay Canizaro
127 Juan Melo
128 Steve Gibralter
129 Freddy Garcia
130 Julio Santana
131 Richard Hidalgo
132 Jermaine Dye
133 Willie Adams
134 Everett Stull
135 Ramon Morel
136 Chan Ho Park
137 Jamey Wright
138 Luis R. Garcia RC
139 Dan Serafini
140 Ryan Dempster RC
141 Tate Seefried
142 Jimmy Hurst
143 Travis Miller
144 Curtis Goodwin
145 Rocky Coppinger RC
146 Enrique Wilson
147 Jaime Bluma
148 Andrew Vessel
149 Damian Moss
150 Shawn Gallagher RC
151 Pat Watkins
152 Jose Paniagua
153 Danny Graves
154 Bryon Gainey RC
155 Steve Soderstrom
156 Cliff Brumbaugh RC
157 Gene Kingsale RC
158 Lou Collier
159 Todd Walker
160 Kris Detmers RC
161 Josh Booty RC
162 Greg Whiteman RC
163 Damian Jackson
164 Tony Clark
165 Jeff D'Amico
166 Johnny Damon
167 Rafael Orellano
168 Ruben Rivera
169 Alex Ochoa
170 Jay Powell
171 Tom Evans
172 Ron Villone
173 Shawn Estes
174 John Wasdin
175 Bill Simas
176 Kevin L. Brown
177 Shannon Stewart
178 Todd Greene
179 Bob Wolcott
180 Chris Snopek
181 Nomar Garciaparra
182 Cameron Smith RC
183 Matt Drews
184 Jimmy Haynes
185 Chris Carpenter
186 Desi Relaford
187 Ben Grieve
188 Mike Bell
189 Luis Castillo RC
190 Ugueth Urbina
191 Paul Wilson
192 Andruw Jones
193 Wayne Gomes
195 Jim Cole
196 Brooks Kieschnick
197 Trey Beamon
198 Marino Santana RC
199 Bobby Abreu
200 Pokey Reese
201 Dante Powell
202 George Arias
203 Jorge Velandia RC
204 George Lombard RC
205 Byron Browne RC
206 John Frascatore
207 Terry Adams
208 Wilson Delgado RC
209 Billy McMillon
210 Jeff Abbott
211 Trot Nixon
212 Amaury Telemaco
213 Scott Sullivan
214 Justin Thompson
215 Decomba Conner
216 Ryan McGuire
217 Matt Luke RC
218 Doug Million
219 Jason Dickson RC
220 Ramon Hernandez RC
221 Mark Bellhorn RC
222 Eric Ludwick RC
223 Luke Wilcox RC
224 Marty Malloy RC
225 Gary Coffee RC
226 Wendell Magee RC
227 Brett Tomko RC
228 Derek Lowe
229 Jose Rosado RC
230 Steve Bourgeois RC
231 Neil Weber RC
232 Jeff Ware
233 Edwin Diaz
234 Greg Norton
235 Aaron Boone
236 Jeff Suppan
237 Bret Wagner
238 Eli Marrero
239 Will Cunnane
240 Brian Barkley RC
241 Jay Payton
242 Marcus Jensen
243 Ryan Nye
244 Chad Mottola
245 Scott McClain RC
246 Jesse Ibarra RC
247 Mike Darr RC
248 Bobby Estalella RC
249 Michael Barrett
250 Jamie Lopiccolo RC
251 Shane Spencer RC
252 Ben Petrick RC
253 Jason Bell RC
254 Arnold Gooch RC
255 T.J. Mathews
256 Jason Ryan
257 Pat Cline RC
258 Rafael Carmona RC
259 Carl Pavano RC
260 Ben Davis
261 Matt Lawton RC
262 Kevin Sefcik RC
263 Chris Fussell RC
264 Mike Cameron RC
265 Marty Janzen RC
266 Livan Hernandez RC
267 Raul Ibanez RC
268 Juan Encarnacion
269 David Yocum RC
270 Jonathan Johnson RC
271 Reggie Taylor
272 Danny Buxbaum RC
273 Jacob Cruz
274 Bobby Morris RC
275 Andy Fox RC
276 Greg Keagle
277 Charles Peterson
278 Derrek Lee
279 Bryant Nelson RC
280 Antone Williamson
281 Scott Elarton
282 Shad Williams RC
283 Rich Hunter RC
284 Chris Sheff
285 Derrick Gibson
286 Felix Rodriguez
287 Brian Banks RC
288 Jason McDonald
289 Glendon Rusch RC
290 Gary Rath
291 Pete Munro
292 Tom Fordham
293 Jason Kendall
294 Russ Johnson
295 Joe Long RC
296 Robert Smith RC
297 Jarrod Washburn RC
298 Dave Coggin RC
299 Jeff Yoder RC
300 Jed Hansen RC
301 Matt Morris RC
302 Josh Bishop RC
303 Dustin Hermanson
304 Mike Gulan
305 Felipe Crespo
306 Quinton McCracken
307 Jim Bonnici RC
308 Sal Fasano
309 Gabe Alvarez RC
310 Heath Murray RC
311 Javier Valentin RC
312 Bartolo Colon
313 Olmedo Saenz
314 Norm Hutchins RC
315 Chris Holt
316 David Doster RC
317 Robert Person
318 Donne Wall RC
319 Adam Riggs RC
320 Homer Bush
321 Brad Rigby RC
322 Lou Merloni RC
323 Neifi Perez
324 Chris Cumberland
325 Alvie Shepherd RC
326 Jarrod Patterson RC
327 Ray Ricken RC
328 Danny Klassen RC
329 David Miller RC
330 Chad Alexander RC
331 Matt Beaumont
332 Damon Hollins
333 Todd Dunn
334 Mike Sweeney RC
335 Richie Sexson
336 Billy Wagner
337 Ron Wright RC
338 Paul Konerko
339 Tommy Phelps RC
340 Karim Garcia
341 Mike Grace RC
342 Russell Branyan RC
343 Randy Winn RC
344 A.J. Pierzynski RC
345 Mike Busby RC
346 Matt Beech RC
347 Jose Cepeda RC
348 Brian Stephenson
349 Rey Ordonez
350 Rich Aurilia RC
351 Edgard Velazquez RC
352 Raul Casanova
353 Carlos Guillen RC
354 Bruce Aven RC
355 Ryan Jones RC
356 Derek Aucoin RC
357 Brian Rose RC
358 Richard Almanzar RC
359 Fletcher Bates RC
360 Russ Ortiz RC
361 Wilton Guerrero RC
362 Geoff Jenkins RC
363 Pete Janicki
364 Yamil Benitez
365 Aaron Holbert
366 Tim Belk
367 Terrell Wade
368 Terrence Long
369 Brad Fullmer
370 Matt Wagner
371 Craig Wilson
372 Mark Loretta
373 Eric Owens
374 Vladimir Guerrero
375 Tommy Davis
376 Donnie Sadler
377 Edgar Renteria
378 Todd Helton
379 Ralph Milliard RC
380 Darin Blood RC
381 Shayne Bennett
382 Mark Redman
383 Felix Martinez
384 Sean Watkins RC
385 Oscar Henriquez
Checklist
Bowman's Best Preview Checklist
BBP2 Alan Benes
BBP3 Brooks Kieschnick
BBP4 Barry Bonds
BBP5 Rey Ordonez
BBP6 Tim Salmon
BBP7 Mike Piazza
BBP8 Billy Wagner
BBP9 Andruw Jones
BBP10 Tony Gwynn
BBP11 Paul Wilson
BBP12 Pokey Reese
BBP13 Frank Thomas
BBP14 Greg Maddux
BBP15 Derek Jeter
BBP17 Barry Larkin
BBP18 Todd Greene
BBP19 Ruben Rivera
BBP20 Richard Hidalgo
BBP21 Larry Walker
BBP22 Carlos Baerga
BBP23 Derrick Gibson
BBP24 Richie Sexson
BBP25 Mo Vaughn
BBP26 Hideo Nomo
BBP27 Nomar Garciaparra
BBP28 Cal Ripken Jr.
BBP29 Karim Garcia
BBP30 Ken Griffey Jr.
Mickey Mantle Commemorative Checklist
Minor League Player of the Year Candidate Checklist
POY2 Derrick Gibson
POY3 Bobby Abreu
POY4 Todd Walker
POY5 Jamey Wright
POY6 Wes Helms
POY7 Karim Garcia
POY8 Bartolo Colon
POY10 Mike Sweeney
POY11 Ruben Rivera
POY12 Gabe Alvarez
POY13 Billy Wagner
POY14 Vladimir Guerrero
POY15 Edgard Velazquez
