2024 Bowman Baseball Anime inserts are giving collectors more to chase in the product than just the usual assortment of prospects, autographs and Refractors.
A seemingly unusual mash-up between the old-time TV-inspired 1955 Bowman Baseball and Japanese cartoons, the set makes its debut with 15 cards. It’s a fairly even mix of top stars like Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, rookies such as Elly De La Cruz and Jasson DomÃnguez, and top prospects like Jackson Holliday and Druw Jones.
Besides the distinct look of the artwork, the big draw on these is their rarity. Over the past couple of years, Topps has been aiming to match Panini with popular case hits across most of their products. 2024 Bowman Anime seems to be sticking with early sales reaching into the hundreds for the biggest names.
In addition to the regular versions, all 15 cards also have four levels of numbered parallels: Gold Refractors (#’ed/50), Orange Refractors (#’ed/25), Red Refractors (#’ed/5) and one-of-one Superfractors. 2024 Bowman Baseball Anime does not have any autographs.
These aren’t the first anime-inspired sports cards. For the past couple of years, Panini has done a Manga insert set in various Prizm sets. They’re also tough case hits. Many of these take more of an over-the-top approach to art versus Bowman Anime’s eye for action.
There’s also Leaf’s Anime Nation series, which covers several sports. Base versions have been done in a print-to-order fashion through their website while autographs have been included in a variety of their products.
These aren’t the first baseball cards from Topps to draw inspiration from Japanese art, either. A handful of cards from sets like 2021 Topps Project 70 used the style, although not consistently.
How Rare Are 2024 Bowman Baseball Anime Inserts?
The base versions of the cards are only in two types of packs: hobby (1:289 packs) and jumbo (1:97 packs). This evens out to basically one per case for each (1:12 hobby boxes, 1:8 jumbo boxes).
Most parallels are spread across retail as well:
Gold Refractors – #’ed/50
- Hobby – 1:17,571 packs
- Jumbo – 1:5,340 packs
- Hobby Blaster – 1:13,920 packs
- EA Blaster – 1:13,847 packs
- SE Blaster – 1:13,919 packs
- Retail – 1:14,224 packs
Orange Refractors – #’ed/25
- Hobby – 1:7,126 packs
Red Refractors – #’ed/5
- Hobby – 1:171,020 packs
- Jumbo – 1:50,935 packs
- Hobby Blaster – 1:137,212 packs
- EA Blaster – 1:144,003 packs
- SE Blaster – 1:138,548 packs
- Retail – 1:142,240 packs
Superfractors – 1/1
- Hobby – 1:855,096 packs
- Jumbo – 1:220,716 packs
- Hobby Blaster – 1:960,480 packs
- EA Blaster – 1:720,012 packs
- SE Blaster – 1:762,012 packs
- Retail – 1:711,197 packs
2024 Bowman Baseball Anime Checklist
BA-1 Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds
BA-2 Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
BA-3 Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
BA-4 Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
BA-5 Druw Jones, Arizona Diamondbacks
BA-6 Jackson Holliday, Baltimore Orioles
BA-7 Henry Davis, Pittsburgh Pirates
BA-8 Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
BA-9 Marcelo Mayer, Boston Red Sox
BA-10 Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks
BA-11 Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves
BA-12 Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee Brewers
BA-13 Masataka Yoshida, Boston Red Sox
BA-14 Julio RodrÃguez, Seattle Mariners
BA-15 Jasson DomÃnguez, New York Yankees
