1952 Bowman Set - Completed

[1963Topps Set]

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.

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

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!

[1963Topps Set]

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.

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

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.

[1963Topps Set]

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.

[G1911]

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.