Can't really add anything worthwhile in the presence of such expertise, but the one thing I always recalled about buying wax packs in 1952 was that there were scarcely any Topps cards available in my area of upstate NY. I bought a lot of Bowman product that year, but suffered long-remembered pangs of envy when a kid in the schoolyard pulled out a stack of the larger (and thus more attractive) 52 Topps. I think that kid had just returned from a family trip to NY city or the environs, where he picked up the treasure trove. But, the only Topps cards I recall in my collection that year were a few that were severely trimmed to match the size of the Bowmans in my rubber-banded, back-pocket collection.
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