I was walking the dog and saw this random piece of garbage on the sidewalk, and it made me wonder if little Harvey and I stumbled through a time warp. It's an empty wrapper from a pack of baseball cards. The Bowman logo immediately caught my eye, and the design of the wrapper looked very familiar. I know they still make Bowman baseball cards in 2020, but these days, they're more of a specialty sub-brand for rookies and prospects, and they definitely don't come packaged with a stick of gum.
A quick search online confirmed what I had suspected: this wrapper is from a wax pack of 1989 Bowman cards that came out when I was eight years old. It's in pristine condition for a 31 year old package that has been discarded on the streets of West Hazleton, so I can only assume that this was a package from someone's collection or new old stock that was only recently opened.
It's not a particularly rare or valuable set. You can find a factory sealed box of all 484 cards in the set for about $15. There are also plenty of unopened packs and boxes that could be had from one of several hundred different sellers on eBay. Though I've come to appreciate the '89 Bowman set more as an adult collector, I wasn't crazy about it when I was a kid. The cards are slightly larger than a standard 2.5" x 3.75" card, so they stuck out from the rest of the cards when you put them in a box, but they're a pretty cool vintage design, and the set includes a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card.
