Early prices for Yankees 2022 Bowman Draft cards are absurd

The New York Yankees got roundly shafted in the 2022 Bowman Draft Picks checklist, as Topps decided they’d rather hold first-round pick Spencer Jones’ first Bowman card back for a later release.

That means the only Yankees representatives on the autograph checklist of this prestige product are second-rounder Drew Thorpe (who could be a Pittsburgh Pirate in a few weeks) and fourth-round outfielder Anthony Hall out of Oregon. And if you’d like to score their first signatures, you’re going to have to pay up.

Bowman Draft, an annual holiday tradition, used to be a relative bargain product. Standard. 24 packs per box, one prospect autograph per box, $120ish per box. Sometimes you’d strike gold. Sometimes you’d run into the subject of the autographed card you received at Meinicke doing a tire adjustment and rotation four years later. Luck of the draw.

The author of this story pulled Giancarlo Stanton one Christmas. The author of this story also pulled someone named Jake Skole on another. Jake Skole!

But nowadays, as the baseball card market gets plussed up all over, the Bowman Draft product only comes in jumbo packs. Collectors receive three autographs per box on average (Woo!), but the price of said boxes has been raised to around $450-$500 a pop (Dear God!).

Somehow, the price of the singles has risen to match this escalating cost. Anthony Hall refractor? $125 plus shipping! Thorpe? $179!

2022 Bowman Draft Picks checklist features expensive Yankees

Not enough coin for you to drop? Don’t worry — there’s also a five-autograph-per-box option that’ll run you $700!

It remains a shame that kids will be largely priced out of this portion of the hobby in years to come, especially considering this product is kind of a hard sell for kids anyway (“No, trust us, you’re going to want to have that in five years. Don’t put it in your mouth!”).

Ripping Bowman Draft was one of the highlights of this author’s childhood, even if the Yankees weren’t involved — and they rarely were. The Bombers were mostly stuck drafting Cito Culvers and CJ Henries in those days while everybody else snagged their Trouts. Most Yankees drafts were like a bad Bowman box and a ruined Christmas.

At least that only used to cost $120, though. Imagine ruining Christmas at these current rates? You’d have to take out a second mortgage, which would probably be sold to you by Jake Skole.