1948-1955 Bowman - Series by Series breakdown and identification
 

The Bowmans are one of my favorite vintage baseball runs, with a very minimalist design until the final year. I would hardly consider myself any kind of expert on these, but I’ve been collecting them for most of my life and would love to flesh out the details. For, frankly, no real reason at all I like to separate my sets by series, recreating how they were actually issued in my boxes. This poses a challenge for the Bowmans, as there seems to be little direct evidence of most of the series. The uncut sheets of the 48’s and 49’s don’t seem to exist in the other years (or if they do, are seldom seen/shared). Below is the series by series breakdown for every year, as I understand it. A lot of this seems to fall into the “common wisdom” category of information that is listed in the articles and guides and makes logical sense, but doesn’t seem to have a source of direct evidence that I can locate to prove the assertion. I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts, theories, corrections, direct evidence (anyone opened a pack of 53-55 to help ID what numbers were in a series?), uncut material, or anything else.


1948 Bowman
1 series or 2? Two sheets were used, one with cards 1-36, and a second sheet removing cards 7, 8, 13, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30 and adding 37-48. Two sheets doesn’t necessarily mean two series though.



1949 Bowman
Series 1: 1-3, 5-73. Printed on two sheets, but these appear to have been issued as one series. Gray or white backs for all cards.

Series 2: 4, 74-108. Gray backs only from here on out.

Series 3: 109-144. The printed names on back were printed in script instead, and the players name was added to the front of the cards.

Series 4: 145-180. The name on front is kept, but the backs reverted to a printed name instead of cursive script. This series is the beginning of the high numbers.

Series 5: 181-216, same format as series 4.

Series 6: 217-240, plus reprints of 4, 78, 83, 85, 88, 98, 109, 124, 126, 127, 132 and 143. These 12 reprinted cards created variations with how the names are printed on the back, are or are not on the front, and the background color of some of the cards.

—— Pacific Coast League issue of 36 cards, a single sheet.



1950 Bowman
Series 1: 1-72 - again, it appears that the first two sheets were issued as one series. Tougher than the rest of the series, but not particularly difficult

Series 2: 73-108

Series 3: 109-144

Series 4: 145-180

Series 5: 181-216. Cards can be found with or without the copyright caption on back. Cards missing it are scarcer, and are much tougher to find than the missing caption cards in series 6

Series 6: 217-252



1951 Bowman
Series 1: 1-36

Series 2: 37-72

Series 3: 73-108

Series 4: 109-180. A two sheet series.

Series 5: 181-216

Series 6: 217-252

Series 7: 253-324. A two sheet series, significantly tougher than the first 6 series.




1952 Bowman
Series 1: 1-72. Again appears to have been issued as one series from two sheets. Each card can be found from two different printings, one with a creamer border and less vibrant color, and one with a whiter border and more vibrant colors.

Series 2: 73-108

Series 3: 109-144

Series 4: 145-180

Series 5: 181-216

Series 6: 217-252. Notably more difficult than the earlier series




1953 Bowman
This one is a total mystery to me. I would presume the sheet sizes changes with the great increase in the physical size of the cards. 160 cards in the color issue divides into 5 series of 32 cards, if Bowman kept this format. The cards are usually grouped into 3 chunks, 1-112 being the commons, 113-128 being short prints, and 129-160 being the rest of the higher numbers, but easier than 1-112. Personally, I did not find 113-128 to be more difficult than the other high number cards when I built my set. 113-160 constitutes 48 cards, so there may have been some short printing and double printing to place 48 cards onto 2 sheets for this series, account for the 16 cards 113-128 that have historically been treated different.

I find it very unlikely 1-112 was one series, and was probably 4 32 card series, or 2 64 card ones.

The Black and White set was issued after the Colors, and is the final series, even though the numbering starts over. Appears to have been a single issue.



1954 Bowman
Another mystery to me. Traditionally grouped into two batches, 1-128 and 129-224. The second does seem to be a little bit scarcer than the first group, but is pretty easy for “high numbers”. I would suspect there are at least 2 series among the low numbers, though the high numbers may be 1, as Bowman seems to have switched to larger series for 1955, which could have begun here at the end of the 1954 run.



1955 Bowman
Mystery again. Traditionally split into two groups, 1-224 being the more common low numbers and then 225-320 being the tougher highs. 225 definitely starts a new series, as the scarcity difference is quite obvious on the highs, though they aren’t that tough to find overall.

The 224 low numbers divide into 32, unsurprisingly. The first 64 cards feature a light colored television set, and are often labelled as series 1. This does not seem to be case to me, as I have seen some miscuts that show the adjacent card to alight colored 1-64 card was a dark bordered TV card. It seems to me series 1 probably constituted at least 1-96. There were probably 2-4 series that make up the low numbers. The 96 high numbers may have been one series, as it appears Bowman switched to larger series’ in 1955.

Greg: Seems like a pretty accurate assessment of the Bowman output. Have you ever laid eyes on the excellent and highly detailed article that Ted Zanidakis did for Baseball Cards Magazine on the 1953 Bowman set back in the 1980's? It may have been posted here sometime in the past, but I don't have a link to it right now. If you can't find it, I have a copy of the BBC article in my files and can post it for your dining and dancing pleasure.:)

Hey Steve - I actually have not seen that! I have Ted's excellent articles on the 1949 Bowmans, I'd love to view a copy if you can share. I need to stop spending on cards, and buy a collection of old periodicals one of these days

This is an excellent thread.

I am currently trying to put together a complete 51' Bowman set. Prior to taking on this task, I laughed at the idea that the high numbers were more challenging to find. I used to think this whole thing was a marketing ploy. However, it has been a few months now since I've been working on this set and I realize that I was dead wrong. :eek: High numbers really are tough. Whenever somebody lists a group of these cards for sale online, there probably won't be a single high in there. I also think that the PSA Population Report gives us the wrong idea, because we don't see a big difference between the highs and lows, however, that's only because collectors are more likely to submit a high in for grading.

I did the same thing when I started collecting the 1951's, the high series is much, much more difficult than I had realized. I ended up with 0 highs from buying lots to fill in my low numbers and had to get each individually. I still need Murtaugh (alongside the Mantle and Mays I'm ignoring for $$$$ reasons). 49 and 51 Bowman highs seem to be the toughest Bowman series'. The 50 Lows, 52, 53 and 55 highs are all notably scarcer than the other series I think, but not as tough as the 49's and 51's. The 54's seem to be only a small difference to me. 52 Topps and 51 Bowman highs seem to be about equally available to me, if not as popular.

If you haven't come across it, there is an excellent article breaking down the probably printing date ranges based on the text of all the card backs and the teams players are credited too. I found this wonderfully helpful and interesting myself: https://www.pjdenterprises.com/baseb...man_print.html

Super Sleuth
 

Great Super Sleuth work on these Bowmans. My experience with collecting the 1950 set is that the first 36 cards are tougher than the next 36. It seems that nicer condition cards (EX-MT or better) #1-36 are harder to find. #73 on up are definitely easier.

Ted Z Article on '53 Bowman
 

Greg: Here is the Ted Z article from the 1986 issue of BBC Magazine.

Sorry these images are so dang hard to read. The system does not allow pages larger than 80 kb to post, which causes them to appear nearly illegible. If anyone knows a work around of that, please comment.

I put my set together without any real regard for condition, and can't say I noticed a scarcity difference. Perhaps it was two series instead of 1, I'm not aware of any direct evidence that the first series was one of the 'double length' series Bowman issued occasionally. It seems to be a long standing assumption I have always heard, and the fact that the first 72 are notably tougher than 73-252 hints that it may have been the traditionally assigned single series. I would love to find out for sure, if anyone has a sheet or has opened a pack

Yes, I did see that article, but the whole thing makes no sense to me. First of all, I was told that the reason Bowman printed the high numbers in smaller quantities was because kids around that time started to look forward to the football season (and wanted football cards instead). However, the NFL season didn't begin until close to October. So, how could they have printed the highs between late June to mid-July? How early did Bowman start printing the football cards? You will also notice that the first baseball series was printed sometime in April (the same month baseball season started), so again, why would Bowman start printing football cards way before the football season even started? Am I missing something here?

Personally, I think it has nothing to do with Football either. Interest in Baseball is highest when a new season starts (and during the World Series), and then collectors 'drop out' as the year progresses. This happens even today. Topps issues its main set in 2 series + an update set. Topps series 1 is printed in much high numbers than Topps series 2, because you have a ton of people buying a few packs at Target or Wal-Mart when the season is just starting or about to start. Topps baseball series 2 comes out long before the football sets (which Topps no longer has a license for) still. I expect it was similar here.


I think this is partly the fault of how we see things today, focusing only on the major sports sets. Bowman and Topps printed (through a contracted printer) several sets throughout most years. Some of these appear to have been printed right around the same time. Football season coming doesn't appear to mean that they needed to cease production of one set to make another; and the drop in sales throughout a season does not seem to me to relate to football at all.


I think the writer did a great job of identifying the earliest possible print dates based on a thorough examination of the cards, but of course, barring a find of Bowman's internal records, I'll doubt we'll ever know the actual ones.

BOWMAN cards
 

G1911

Nice presentation.

But, starting with the 1948 set, some of the info you stated regarding Series make-up of these BOWMAN sets is not correct.


http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...manbbsheet.jpg


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

I'm confident some of it is not; it's taken mostly from articles, variations that can help pinpoint, the little uncut material I have seen previously, and the catalogs. What is incorrect with 1948? Was it not two sheets? Is it known if it was 1 or 2 series?

Hey Teddy Z, your uncut sheets remind me of something, You once (I believe many years ago) posted a big sheet of the 51 or 52 Bowman cards that was much bigger than the smaller ones normally seen. Do you still have that scan?

BOWMAN cards
 

Hi Dave

Great hearing from you. I missed seeing you at the National this past Summer.

Is this the BOWMAN sheet you are referring to...…


http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...etLarge19x.jpg



http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...perLarge25.jpg



TED Z

T206 Reference
.

Ted, I've been to Chicago the last several Nationals and seem to be arriving when you are leaving. I probably will not be in AC this year.

No it was the smaller cards I think but was more like a Topps sized sheet; there were a number of 32 card groupings on it, maybe in a 4 x 3 array with gutters in between each 32 card panel. I may be misrembering if it was yours but I do recall it being posted here a long while back. I lost some scans in a hard drive crash awhile back and that was one of them. Only time I've ever seen something like that.

Steve,

Thank you so much for posting this Zanidakis article. I couldn't read it on my desktop at first, but then I looked at the pages on my wife's iPad, with the brightness turned all the way up, and I managed to read the whole thing pretty quickly. It's an amazing piece of work and it answers so many of my questions.

Did you actually read these baseball card magazines back in the 1980s? Are there any other interesting articles you have? If so, I would love to read them! Please PM me.

____________________________________________

G1911 (what's your name, dude?)

I found this interesting paragraph in the Zanidakis article posted above:

Usually, the later series were not printed or sold in as high a quantity as the first few series, because the novelty of the new set would have worn off by mid-summer OR the cards would be competing with football cards on the store shelves.

Zanidakis has listed two possible explanations as to why Bowman would short-print their high numbers. This takes us back to my earlier question, and that is how early did Bowman start printing their football cards? Bowman started printing their baseball cards during the same month the 51' baseball season started, which was in April, but it looks like they did not do this with their football cards. In other words, Bowman issued their football cards way before the football season even started.

52 Bowman Football
 

Dave: Are the sheets at this link what you are referring to?
https://www.footballcardgallery.com/...+Bowman+Large/

Here is an old thread from nine years ago that has a lot of very salient information on the same subject.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=120822

I'm Greg. I think the more likely explanation is the first; sales of baseball series at retail (Hobby isn't really comparable, I think, as an investment based product) even now fall off independent of football. At the time, the baseball series would have always had competition from other card sets by Topps and Bowman, they released several other sets every year, some of which appear to have been issued during the same time periods. There doesn't seem to me to be any reason to think only one set from a manufacturer could be in development or release at one time. I think the Football explanation that is oft-repeated stems more from what we tend to focus on today; baseball sets first, football sets second, everything else relegated to a footnote if ever mentioned at all, than it is fact.


Going off memory - the 51 Bowman Footballs almost all have a "[Name] was on blank team/did [achievement] in 1950" and most of the rest of the text is about the few years before 1950, less of a 'live update' type approach that is on some of the baseball cards. I have near sets of the 54-55 Bowman and 56 Topps football issues I can scour the backs for to see latest/earliest possible dates.

Steve, thanks for the two links. The sheet I recall seeing isn't among either unfortunately. Probably not a Teddy Z post then, adding to the mystery. Well, I will keep digging.

It should be possible to narrow down the 1955's using physical evidence, due to the change in border color starting at card 65, making even slight miscuts show the border type of the adjacent card.

Because there was a tiny 'margin of error' between miscut cards of a different color adjacent to each other, they are easy to find. Here are some of of the lower number cards showing dark brown TV borders to the left or right side (I don't believe I've seen one top or bottom). Minoso in particular seems to be very easy to find off center and showing this. Schoendienst is another one found this way, though my card is cut properly. I hope this shows up clearly, as this site's software caps image sizes at only a few percent of the original photo size.

The off-center cards in the light-colored numbers tell us that both color TV's were in that printing. Most likely, this would include at least 32 dark color TV cards, 65-96. However, going through my set, I found miscuts showing light TV cards, 1-64, must have been adjacent at much higher numbers. Pictured here are 121 Russ Crawford, 128 Mike Garcia, 218 Joe Adcock, and 222 Russ Kemmerrer.

These are hardly unique, other copies of these cards and others can be found easily on comc or eBay.

None of my high series cards show a light TV wood pattern border, as expected, since the scarcity difference between the high number and the other cards is readily apparent, even if they aren't tough.

It seems to me there are 3 possible explanations. A) all low numbers were printed together as one massive series, B) Bowman printed a light frame wood border around their sheets just because), C) Bowman released the cards in a skip numbered pattern until the high series.