I had a handful of 53 Bowmans, all stars, including the Mantle when I was a teenager in the late 70s. I ended up selling them in order to go to a summer debate institute. Almost 40 years later, I saw two raw 53 Bowmans at a local show for .50 each. I bought them out of nostalgia; however, it opened a Pandora's Box and I began piecing a set together.
Many on this board can speak with greater authority than I can about collecting this set. I can share my experiences from the last year in compiling my Bowman set from scratch.
1. It isn't a hard set to complete and with the exception of several cards not too terribly expensive to piece together. One poster suggested purchasing a complete set. That would save money and then you would have to upgrade only as necessary. It's also fun to piece it together, more on that in a bit.
2. When I began my quest last December I had planned to purchase raw cards in vg condition. The commons would be in vg/ex at best and the stars in fair to good condition. That didn't last very long. I have this compulsion to improve my cards and as in the past all the cards had to be in vg/ex across the board. Then I decided that I wasn't happy with the look of certain cards and now I'm crafting my set where I have a few cards in vg/ex while the others have to be in ex to ex-mint. About 30 of the cards are graded, including the Mantle, Berra, both combo cards, some minor stars and various singles throughout the set. One day I hope to trade my graded cards for their raw equivalents as I keep the set in plastic sheets in a binder.
3. As I keep upgrading I end up with extras. At this point I have had over 100 extras which I have hoped I could use to trade for other upgrades. That hasn't worked out as I had hoped. Virtually all of my purchases have come from eBay which has added to roughly 5.00 per card to my cost. There are also many cards available in vg/ex or less condition, meaning I'm in competiton with other sellers/collectors to get rid of my extras. As I said earlier, this isn't a hard set to complete and if you focus and remain focused on a certain grade, you'll do fine.
4. Ebay seems to be the easiest source for 53 Bowman color, but if you can buy locally or attain them from fellow collectors you have a better chance of saving money. I live in southeast Los Angeles County where there aren't many outlets to purchase 53 Bowmans, the stores that do have some are way on the other side of Los Angeles which I don't have much of an opportunity to visit. Singles for 53 Bowmans don't appear as often on the collector's sites, though there are groups through social media where there's activity. Some collectors who read this post and are active could speak to that.
5. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to raw cards. Some collectors and sellers have a broad interpretation, particularly when it comes to cards in the vg/ex to ex-mint range. I've had my best luck purchasing through Kent Jones and Sirius on eBay when it comes to accurate descriptions and competitive pricing. Greg Morris also provides quality cards, but his auctions attract lots of bidders and raw cards sometimes sell at higher prices. I've only had three instances where an eBay purchase of a 53 Bowman didn't meet the description, but it was taken care of in a quick and professional manner. Shop carefully as you'll probably see that card you'll need many more times in the future.
6. When I worked in the hobby at shows and in baseball card stores in the 70s and 80s "advanced" collectors collected Bowmans, but pricing was fairly simple: the first and last cards, high numbers and Dodgers/Yankees cards usually sold for more. After the rookie craze in the early 80s, rookie cards for vintage sets also sold for more. Getting back into this I've learned that pricing has grown more complex. Way back when Bobby Shantz generally sold as a common, in the 53 Bowman set he's considered to be a minor star and will sell for more than other commons. Others that may end up costing more are the Smokey Burgess, Curt Simmons, Mel Parnell, Joe Nuxhall, Billy Pierce, Hector Rodriguez, and Bob Rush. Minor stars, at least back when I was active working in the hobby, such as Minoso, Kluszewski, Reynolds, and Adcock have asking prices well above commons. Billy Martin is priced above some HOF players. Robin Roberts and Ralph Kiner usually can be found cheaply in vg/ex condition. High numbers 113-129 tend to cost a bit more than other high numbers, especially if their centered.
7. Centering didn't mean all that much when I collected and having a card in ex-mint was fine. When I rediscovered the 53 Bowmans I also learned that centering was a major issue with this set. Many collectors now consider centering extremely important and will pass on otherwise nice cards that have imperfect centering. In putting this set together either I found perfectly centered cards that were damaged in other ways or cards that presented nicely but have 70/30 centering or worse on a fairly common basis. My set is "imbalanced" as I didn't have the patience or funds to acquire that "perfect card." The high numbers frequently appear off-center and I've noticed that most of the lower numbers have more borders showing at the top and to the left side of the card. I have had difficulty finding the Easter and Joost centered. It's also difficult in the high numbers to find the Yost, Drews, Feller, Mitchell, Michaels, Ryan, Jones, Dente, Shea and Allie Clark well-centered.
I love looking at this set, not only for its aesthetic beauty but because it brings me back to a time when I read the backs of the cards and there was a magic in being surrounded by older cards, even if I didn't always have the funds to purchase them, which was often, and still happens today. Oh, well, some things I guess don't change! Happy collecting and please share your progress with others on this discussion board.
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