With the release of 2026 Bowman Baseball, collectors had an entirely new crop of prospects with Bowman 1sts to chase after. The big chase prospects in the product were known to be Ethan Holliday, Aiva Arquette, Justin Gonzalez, and Andrew Fischer, among others, but half the fun of Bowman is trying to unearth the prospects that others aren't looking hard for and reaping the benefits down the line.
While Atlanta Braves prospect Eric Hartman wasn't exactly on many collectors' radars to start with, that is changing in a hurry.
Now, Hartman wasn't a true unknown ahead of the release of 2026 Bowman, although he was pretty close. His 2025 season wasn't really anything to write home about at all beyond stealing a bunch of bases, but his insane start to the 2026 campaign was starting to get a lot of attention from Braves diehards and some national outlets as the set was releasing.
Well, since then, Hartman has become essentially a consensus top-100 prospect (and probably higher than that at this point), and now he is one of the prospects that collectors absolutely need to be going after in this year's Bowman.
Braves' Eric Hartman is no longer a sleeper prospect in 2026 Bowman
Roughly a month after 2026 Bowman's release, prices are starting to settle a bit. Holliday's 1st base chrome autos are going for around $130-150, and Arquette's can be had for around $100. These guys were the top 2025 draft picks in the product, and even with Holliday's injury issues they are going to hold value until they fall on their faces. However, what is curious is that Hartman is currently keeping pace with most of the big names, and he definitely has upside to go much higher.
As a guy who was a 20th-round pick and who just got added to top 100 prospect lists, Hartman's 1st autos are already commanding real money from collectors’ wallets. As of June 14, his base chrome 1st autos have been routinely selling for $80-90 apiece. That is right in line with what Fischer's 1st autos have been getting and more than Gonzalez is getting at the moment. Hartman doesn't have the ceiling to compete with the top names with collectors; he is already there and is trending upward still.
Where Hartman's value settles by the end of the year is a fair question. The guy is putting up video game numbers at the Braves' high-A affiliate. He'll need to get a promotion and continue that production to make a run at Holliday's 1st prices. That's more likely than many may think right now and is a far cry from where things stood when Bowman was announced.
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