Happy 2026 Bowman release day! But before we dive in, I wanted to tell you a quick story I recently heard at a card show which might be the best 1st Bowman autograph story of all-time.

Jheremy Brown works with Perfect Game, the youth baseball showcase organization, and he first met Konnor Griffin when the Pirates star shortstop was just 13 years old. As you might expect, Jheremy watched Konnor’s rapid ascent from boyhood to the bigs with an added emotional investment.

Jheremy’s son Finn is now 4 years old, and despite what his dad does for a living, he had never been to a major league game. So, when Jheremy heard that Konnor would be making his MLB debut back at the Pirates’ home opener last month, he thought it’d be the perfect moment to create a core memory for Finn.

He booked the travel to Pittsburgh, took Finn out to the ballgame and had an incredible father-son experience watching Griffin’s big-league debut at one of the most beautiful ballparks in all of baseball.

“Konnor got a bigger ovation than Skenes during the pregame intros!” Jheremy told me, sounding like a proud papa at one of the most beautiful ballparks in all of baseball.

But it didn’t end there. As busy as the day was for Konnor, he made sure to take time for one of the people who had helped him get to that level.

After the game, he welcomed Jheremy and Finn down to the field and signed one of his 1st Bowman cards with a special inscription just for Finn:

Griffin’s actual 1st Bowman autos might be selling for four figures. And his Debut Patch auto later this year might be a six-figure card. But his 1st Bowman with the inscription “Finn’s first game and my debut” signed on the day he began his MLB career might be the first truly priceless 1st Bowman card.

I’ll give you a moment to wipe the tear from your eye….

Ok, some quick business to attend to before we get to Bowman. It’s time to announce the winners of last month’s contest and to tell you about our next giveaway, too.

Drumroll please…

We are proud to announce that the six winners of our first Baseball Card America contest are Greg Bates, Anthony Corona, Wes McMahan, Scott Shertzer and two other readers who haven’t gotten back to me yet. Here’s a hint: Their email addresses start with “dsmith” and “denis,” so if that sounds like it could be you, please check your spam folder for my email and get back to me ASAP!

Each of those winners will receive a sealed box of 2026 Onyx Vintage. And no, the boxes do not each contain five guaranteed autos like we mentioned last time. The good people at Onyx actually sent us the MEGA boxes instead. So, each winner gets a sealed box with 10 guaranteed autos instead!

Which brings us to our next contest…

Bowman 2026 isn’t the only big prospect-driven drop today. Leaf Baseball Nation 2026 also comes your way, featuring auto chases for Griffin, Kevin McGonigle, Jesús Made, Nick Kurtz, Roch Cholowsky and many others. And we’re giving away two hobby boxes to random Baseball Card America subscribers.

But wait… there’s more!

We’re also giving away two prize packs of ONIT college cards. Each prize pack will contain five boxes of cards, from each of the schools in ONIT’s initial drop last month: UCLA, Texas A&M, Wake Forest, West Virginia and TCU.

So, that’s four grand prizes to be awarded just for being a Baseball Card America subscriber. We will announce the winners in the next installment of the Baseball Card America newsletter on Wednesday, June 10, which also happens to be release day for 2026 Topps Series 2.

Note that we won’t be picking the winners until the first week of June, so be sure to forward this newsletter to your friends and tell them to sign up so they can enter to win free boxes of cards!

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, LET’S BOWMAN!

At that same card show where I was told the Griffin story, I overheard a conversation about the upcoming release of 2026 Bowman, with one collector saying, “I don't understand at all how you can buy and collect Bowman baseball cards without Baseball America.”

To quote a former co-worker of mine from back in the day, 1996 Olympic gold medalist and former WWE Champion Kurt Angle, “It’s true. It’s true.”

Even before I started at Baseball America, I was using their rankings and analysis to inform all of my prospect collecting. And I can tell you from experience that about 90% of the prospect info you see out there previewing the set comes from BA. So you have come to the right place!

In evaluating 2026 Bowman, we wanted to look past the tippy-top names with 1st Bowman cards that most people already know to chase, such as Ethan Holliday and Aiva Arquette. So, I sent the checklist to our staffers and asked them which under-the-radar names are worth pursuing. Here are just a few of the names they sent back:

You can read more on all of these prospects and see the other eight names on their list on our site right now.

And as you rip 2026 Bowman today, also remember this: There’s not a single prospect on the checklist who doesn’t have a comprehensive profile on the Baseball America website. So if you want more info on any of the names you pull, don’t be a stranger!

And a few other resources that might help with Bowman:

It’s not just Baseball America’s stories about baseball cards that can help you with your baseball cards. If you know where to look, there’s information everywhere at BA. In fact, even most of our non-card coverage can also be a huge boost for your collection.

Here’s just one example.

Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list is the centerpiece of our brand, and while the version that comes out during Spring Training is the main list for the year, our staff updates the list every month in-season based on prospect graduations, hot streaks, injuries and industry feedback.

And those monthly updates can be a goldmine for your collection—not just the list, but also the accompanying monthly story chronicling top risers, top fallers and new additions to the Top 100.

The most recent version of this story, put together by our Josh Norris, came out just last week and contains a ton of great analysis for your prospect collection, from names rising up the ranks like George Lombard Jr. and Franklin Arias to new additions to the Top 100 such as Nathan Flewelling and Pedro Ramirez.

You can also read the tea leaves a bit: As of this update, Konnor Griffin remains our No. 1 prospect and Jesús Made is now our No. 2. With Griffin set to graduate as a prospect any minute now (possibly even by the time you read this), that means Made will soon be the No. 1 prospect in baseball—something that will bode well for his cards. (I should point out: I am guessing about any potential value spikes as a collector and reader who has seen how these trends work before, not as someone who has any kind of insider information!)

As with prospecting, nothing is ever guaranteed. But beyond our daily Prospect Report newsletter (sign up here for free) with regular updates on big names in the minors, there are a ton of prospect trend articles that can give you real-time updates as to which prospects are turning heads among scouts and leaders in the baseball world. And a monthly look at the trends on the definitive prospect ranking in the baseball world is a great place to start.

Here’s one more non-card article (also written by Josh) that could be hugely helpful to your card collection: 50 prospects who really impressed scouts coming out of spring training this year.

If you’ve tried to buy any products directly through the Topps website recently, you know that a lot of the time, the checkout process when a new item drops is about as pleasant as holiday weekend traffic—and somehow even more frustrating.

And although Topps has introduced a few new features recently to try to weed out bots and make it fairer for the average collector— the “Please draw a box around the animal that hatches from an egg” example below is one of my favorites—the Series 2 preorder on Monday was just the latest example of collectors bashing their head against the wall (metaphorically, we hope) while trying to buy cards.

With that in mind, we’re busy working on a story on the checkout process on the Topps site. And we want to hear the stories of what you’ve been through — good, bad and ugly — and also your ideas for how the entire process could be improved.

If you’d like to contribute (or just vent), send me an email at [email protected] and let me know your thoughts. We might even use your comments in the upcoming article. Thank you!

We’re excited to announce we are extending our huge sale on Baseball America subscriptions for one more month!

Use promo code CARDS at checkout to save 26% on the first year of ANY annual digital subscription and get access to everything that Baseball America offers.

Read on below for a closer look at some upcoming baseball card releases. As always, release dates are subject to change.

Again, remember that all release dates are subject to change! You can always get the latest information on these and other upcoming products at our baseball card landing page.

Here are some recent baseball card and collectibles headlines making news at Baseball America:

And make sure to bookmark BA’s baseball card homepage for the latest stories and to take a deep dive into hobby news, analysis and more.

What do you think of BA’s card coverage? What do you want to see more (or less) of? Any overall thoughts on anything? Email me at [email protected] and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, and make sure to tell all your friends to sign up—we’ll announce the winners of the Leaf Baseball Nation boxes and the ONIT college cards in our next edition of Baseball Card America, coming your way on June 10 (which is also Topps Series 2 release day).

Until then, happy hunting!

Seth

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