1952 Bowman

[slipk1068]

A few years ago, I won a lot of EX/EX+ 1952 Bowman cards from a very respected auction house. The auction lot had very accurate descriptions and pics of the card fronts but no mention or pics of the card backs. When I got the cards, I was not happy that 70% of the card backs had wax stains. I know wax stains are very common with Bowmans, but I wasn't expecting that many.

I emailed the auction house and told them I felt misled and they should have provided a few back scans in the listing or at least a description. They replied that they don't post back scans on most postwar cards, and that since PSA doesn't penalize harshly for wax stains on Bowmans and the hobby accepts them as normal for the issue, they didn't think a description was necessary.

I am looking for opinions, especially from Bowman collectors. Was I misled? I know I should have asked questions before I bid, but should the AH have posted scans or descriptions of the card backs? I haven't bid with them since. If the consensus is I shouldn't feel like I was misled, I will consider doing business with them again in the future.

Thanks in advance for the replies.

david

[Neal]

Great set and one of the classic sets in the hobby!

Wax stains are fairly common, and PSA generally doesn't consider them too much. Not sure I have seen any with an ST qualifier for a wax stain.

Many AH's do not post back scans, especially on raw lots. Even moreso if the lot is mostly common cards.

I wouldn't worry about it

get em slabbed!

[ALR-bishop]

I have collected all Topps and Bowman sets, all ungraded. I personally like gum stains. For me they are a nostalgic part of the hobby. But I get why another collector might be disappointed. And I would think less of an auction house that did not think it worth mentioning that a large number of cards in a lot had such stains

On the other hand, I was not a fan of Topps Heritage artificially adding gum stains to some of their cards recently

[savedfrommyspokes]

I pretty much agree with Al...I do not mind the stains on the back of my early Bowman cards as much as I would on other cards. About half of my 52 Bowman set has some sort of back staining.

I feel that any AH should mention something about the staining, even something as simple as "As expected with this issue, many of the backs feature Bowman's trademark staining...."

Lazy on the AH's part for not mentioning, but not much you can do about it now except to move on.

[swarmee]

I would be disappointed to receive that many with wax stains as well. They should have commented it or shown pictures.

[Volod]

I tend to think that a tech grade of EX to EX+ would include the strong possibility of gum stains on the backs. Maybe if they had been NR MT, you would have a legit beef, but in any case, couldn't you have asked for back scans before the auction end? Man, I wonder how long it would have taken me to complete a '52 Bowman set with no gum stains - many years, no doubt.