1952 Bowman Set - Completed
 

A major league shout out to Eddie Zuercher who heard and read my plaintiff wails and offered me the Mickey Mantle I needed. After some minor negotiations, a deal was struck and the card arrived yesterday! Thank you again Eddie! I highly recommend Eddie if anyone is considering doing business with him.

Congrats! I’ve been slowly working and on the 1952 Bowman set in EX condition over the last three years. I’m 83% of the way there (Mantle and Berra are the last BIG cards I need).

I love that set and I’ve really enjoyed building it. Honestly I’m in no rush to finish because then the fun is over.

So, do you have any interesting stories or tips on collecting it? Did you pick up the Werle variation? Did you get any of the full size proof card? A blank back? A wrapper? Are you storing it in a binder?

Sorry for all the questions...I’m just happy to hear that someone completed the journey I’m on.

Oh, and post some pics!

My collection is raw, so none of the cards are graded. Back in the summer of 1979, there was an antique store in my neighborhood that must of been breaking up 1951 and 1952 Bowman sets because he sure had a lot of them. I LOVE the art work on these two sets. Being 16 at the time with just a news route for $$$ I picked up as many cards as i could and had a pretty good collection from that. My only regret in my entire history of collecting baseball cards was that he had the 1951 Bowman Mays and Mantle for $25.00 each. I could not afford them and who knew???? But I did pick up everything else he had available. I keep the cards in top loader holders and in a half top shoe box. Heavy, but I like it. I never bothered with the early Bowmans until a few years ago when a dealer at the shows I go to got me back into it. I just need Mantle to complete the 1951 Bowman set, but doubt I will ever get it.

Yes, I actually prefer raw cards, but any time I spend over $75 for a baseball card on eBay, I get paranoid about buying a fake...so my Mays, Musial, Snider are graded. But honestly I’ve thought about cracking them out.

And I agree about the Bowman art work...it’s awesome. When I got in to vintage collecting a few years ago, I really considered chasing the 1951 set, but I knew the Mantle would ultimately not be attainable at a price I would be comfortable with. But it sounds like you are SO CLOSE to having that set done. If only you had pulled the trigger in the summer of 1979 :)

So 1952 set became my project. Beautiful art and 2nd year cards of Mays and Mantle available for a fraction of the cost of their rookie cards.

and 2nd year cards of Mays and Mantle available for a fraction of the cost of their rookie cards.

Also a fraction of the costs of the greatly overrated 1952 Topps versions.

I do not have a wrapper or box. Just the cards.

Good luck to you and anyone working on this set. It is worth the trouble of putting it together.

Just curious, is anyone collecting the stock/printing variation on the first 72 cards? The first 72 cards can be found with a more cream colored border and a less vibrant, more muddled image, or with a white border and more colorful printing. The difference is similar in nature to the 1962 Topps Green Tints. If one has both versions of a card in hand, the difference is pretty obvious, but it an be hard to tell from scans sometimes. Neither is rare.


I need Mantle (that one will hurt the wallet) and Musial (waiting for the right poor grade) to finish my basic 252 card set. Thinking about adding the Werle and the stock variants for the master. This is a beautiful set, one of my favorites to look through.

I'm not collecting variants, but I too have been curious about the stock variation of the first two printing sheets. Can't imagine why Bowman's quality control people would ok using poor quality stock there. Maybe they just didn't want to spring for better looking stock, but makes no sense. Back in the 80's when I was completing the set, I just noticed that some cards in the first two series were dull and dingey looking, but attributed it to wear or something. Eventually realized the stock difference and spent a couple of years upgrading. By the way, I have a Musial in fair condition if you want to PM.

As of right now I’m not intentionally collecting both the white and cream stock, I have a mix in my collection. I prefer the white stock, but as another poster mentioned, sometimes it’s hard to tell from a scan. When I finally get around to paying up for a Berra, I’ll probably wait until I can find a nice white one. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m actually NOT looking forward to being 100% done, because then the fun is over. So maybe I will get both versions of cards 1-72...or at least ‘upgrade’ to the white versions.

As for the Werle, yes I grabbed the variation too. Prices on that one are all over the map. But it’s fairly attainable and it’s the only true variation in the set.

I’m also wanting to add a wrapper at some point.

I have complete sets of the 51 Bowman, 52 Bowman and have about 60 highs to go on the 52 Topps (and I do have the all 3 NY CF's of the set).

The 52 Bowman is indeed underrated. The 52 also was one the most fun vintage sets to put tougher mainly since I got Mantle and Mays fairly cheap about 8-10 years ago. Also the 252 cards meant not too much hunting and money for commons when compared to 600+ Topps sets of the 60's sets, not to mention the w/ crazy prices for some high cards featured in the 61, 62, 66 and 67 sets. No 62 green tint variations either...

The backgrounds of the 52 Bowmans are very cool, featuring the stadiums of the era, some unique sky shots and action shots. I love this perhaps even more than the revered 53 Bowmans which I am about 50% done.

I always felt the 1952 Bowman baseball card set was the final hooray for the company. It was all down hill from here. Sadly, the 1952 Bowman baseball card set gets greatly overshadowed by the vastly overrated 1952 Topps set, but that plays to my advantage in putting together the 1952 Bowman baseball set!

Well, turns out I didn't wait too long to pick up my Berra. Purchased this one on ebay and just received it. I was a little nervous because I was PRETTY SURE this was a white stock version, and not the cream version, but it's really hard to tell from a scan. But now that I have it in hand and compared it to my others, I can confirm it indeed a nice white one with crisp colors.

Attachment 380520

I have all the other "big" cards in the set (i.e. Mays, Musial, Snider, Campanella). So I'm down to about 30 more commons, a couple high numbers, a couple "lesser" HOF players, and then figuring out how to fund the MANTLE.

Good stuff, guys! The early 50s might just be my favorite period of baseball history. I used to have a complete '53 and '54 Topps sets but broke them up and kept most of the big boys. While I am done building whole sets, this thread reminds me how beautiful those Bowmans are!!