2006

2006 was a year of great change in the baseball card landscape. Donruss had lost its license to produce Major League Baseball cards. Fleer had been lost to bankrupcy (but picked up by Upper Deck. And Major League Baseball imposed its "Not a Rookie Til We Say So" policy and created the RC logo. Thus Bowman (as well as Bowman Chrome, Bowman Sterling, Bowman Heritage and Bowman Draft) began including Prospect insert sets to be able to include the minor league players and prospects who could no longer be included in base sets.

New Sets

Fleer, Fleer Tradition, Ultra, Greats of the Game, Flair, and Flair Showcase were all new to Upper Deck's product line as part of the purchase of Fleer. Upper Deck also introduced Epic, Future Stars, Special F/X, and the ultra high-end Exquisite. Topps introduced the extremely popular Allen and Ginter as a new retro set, as well as Topps 52 (a new rookie set), Topps Co-Signers (previously only an insert set) and two new high end sets Triple Threads and Topps Sterling. Topps also produced the 2006 Bowman Originals set, a single year release that proved to be a dud.

Sets