Box Recap: 1999 Bowman Chrome (Series 1)

Today, I've got a retro box to show off thanks to my ongoing Breaker's Club (by the way, the final evening of boxes for Breaker's Club #2 happens tonight at 8:30 PM EST over on my YouTube channel).  Last week, we opened a number of boxes for the Breaker's Club including a box 1999 Bowman Chrome (Series 1).

Now, I'm not usually a fan of Bowman but I know plenty of other people are which is why I ended up including this box in the Breaker's Club mix.  As expected, the majority of the cards in the box were a mix of veterans and rookies (as Bowman was always known to include).

The base cards don't scan particularly well but I will say that in hand they look quite nice.  In fact, I dare say this is one of the better Bowman designs that I've seen - mostly because it's somewhat memorable!

There aren't a ton of inserts or parallels in 1999 Bowman Chrome Series 1 but we did find a few such cards beginning with two Scouts' Choice inserts (seeded 1:12 packs).

We also found a Scouts' Choice refractor parallel (seeded 1:48 packs) so we beat the odds a bit on that Pickering for the Orioles.

It's kind of amazing how much better the refractors scan as compared to the regular chrome base cards!

Rounding out the inserts, we also found a single Diamond Aces card (seeded 1:21 packs).

I tend to think of "Diamond Aces" as being a set dedicated to pitchers but I guess that wasn't what Topps was thinking back in 1999!

Now, turning our attention back to the base cards we have a few types of parallels to show off.  We'll start with the Gold parallels (seeded 1:12 packs) which I find to be pointless.  The defining characteristic of the gold parallels is gold facsimile signature on the side of the card.  I missed both of those parallels when we ripped the box live, that's how easy they are to overlook!

Next, the standard refractors for which our box produced two as expected (base refractors are seeded 1:12 packs).

We also found six of the International parallels (seeded 1:4 packs).

Out of those six, the star has to be the Ken Griffey, Jr.  In fact, in my estimation that Griffey, Jr. card is the best hit out of the entire box!  

Those who like serially-numbered cards may not agree with me though because we did luck out and pull a chrome refractor international parallel as well.

That Rakers card is numbered 007/100 on the back.  The international refractor parallels are seeded 1:76 packs (congrats to @mdizzle who has Cleveland in the current Breaker's Club)!  You can't really tell from the scan of the regular International parallels but the refractor parallel shows it better:  each card has a background that is from the player's home state (or country).  For Rakers, that's the Liberty Bell since he's from Pittsburgh, PA (all players from Pennsylvania got the Liberty Bell background).  There's also small text in the lower corner that tells where the player is from (which also helps to quickly differentiate the International parallel cards while sorting as well)!

Overall, this was a solid box of cards.  I'm probably never going to be the target audience for the Bowman brand but I will say that I enjoyed this particular box rip.  The International parallels, in particular, are quite nice (esp. the refractor versions)!