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Originally Posted by OsFan
Reading it now, fun read. Just finished Mint Condition by Dave Jamieson, also great.
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Got it in the mail this afternoon. Just finished reading it. While it did not feel like there was a ton of new information that I did not know, I did not really think about just how big of an underdog Topps was coming out of the 324 card 1951 set. On top of that, Bowman had the majority of the stars and guys that we celebrate now in the '54 & '55 sets (especially '55 as Clemente, Killebrew, and Koufax did not appear in an ASG until '59) were not highly thought of at the time.
It took the beautiful mind of Sy Berger and the beautiful cards of '52-'55 Topps to somehow win the hearts, minds, and nickels of young boys across America. What is even more amazing is that the '53 Bowman set was made during this time and it is largely considered the most beautiful post war set of all time - yet Bowman still couldn't win (with the star advantage). I think that the '55 TV set is underrated - as Color TV was such a novel concept at the time. It would be like having an Iphone set in 2005 when folks were still figuring it out at the time.
Quick, inexpensive read and well worth the time and small investment. My only criticism is the lack of pictures as they describe the cards. I had to pull some out to compare as he was describing in print. It could have been a copyright issue - so no worries - just felt that was the only thing missing.