Favorite football card

[Mikehealer]

Lets see your favorite football card, or if you don't have a scan tell us the card. If you have more than one, show them all. For me it's the 1950 Bowman Sammy Baugh.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by Mikehealer

Lets see your favorite football card, or if you don't have a scan tell us the card. If you have more than one, show them all. For me it's the 1950 Bowman Sammy Baugh.

Beautiful card, Mike! I'll have to think long and hard about my favorite. That's a tough one.

A quick story about the '50 Baugh. When I was a kid in the 70's and started collecting football cards, I used to go with a buddy to a local card shop and a local flea market where we discovered vintage football cards existed ... i.e. pre 1970 cards. I would try to pick up a card of a player I'd read about in a book (ideally their rookie card) every time we went but was constrained by having a kid budget so often had to pass. I did pick up a 1950 Bowman Dante Lavelli and 1951 Emlen Tunnell that I still have. Most of the others were late 50's / early 60's Topps and Philly cards.

One weekend I stopped by the flea market and a card dealer had a 1950 Bowman Sammy Baugh. I'd never seen it before and loved the color! He wanted $10 for it and I only had $8 in my pocket. He wouldn't budge on the price so I left without it. The next weekend when I went back, it was gone. Always haunted me that I didn't get that card as a kid so it was one I was after first when I started putting together the 1950s Bowman sets 5-6 years ago.

Love that card.

jeff

jeff

[Mikehealer]

Thanks Jeff, I guess what I really meant was all things being equal(rarity, value, condition etc.)which is your favorite. I have many favorites, but the '50 Baugh is the one I probably like best if all cards were equal. If that makes any sense.

I look forward to yours as well as others.

[LuckyLarry]

Say what you want but it IS a Namath RC

Larry

[pawpawdiv9]

@Larry: I gotta go with Joe as well. For the fact its a super-sized card just adds more character. It was my 1st football card. I have only seen a few of the 'butterfly tatoo' versions on his hand.

[ZernialFan]

A couple of my favorites that I pulled from packs when I was a kid. Have a few more, but the '52's always had a certain look that I liked.
Charlie

[quinnsryche]

Not old but I love it.

[HappyJack41]

Legend.....

[sockwell123]

Have many favorites. I like action shots, and Walter Payton so i'm going with this one.

[CW]

[TanksAndSpartans]

A lot of the 50 Bowman's are really beautiful cards - very underrated set in my opinion. Nice choice on the Baugh. The Y.A. Tittle comes to mind right away as well. For me to pick one, I'll combine: my favorite set, high number rarity, an underrated/forgotten star, and nice aesthetics and go with the one below. (I actually think a board member owns the original artwork as well.)

[jb67]

Here are three of my favorites. Some great cards shown already. That Ernie Caddell certainly looks under graded to me.

[jtschantz]

A difficult one to narrow down…I'll go with Jimmy!

[oddball]

Those Jimmy Brown cards are fantastic! Not only are the Kahns' tougher than heck, you have the '59 Bazooka to boot!

I guess I favor this one a little more than the others:

[oddball]

Great Thread BTW!

[HRBAKER]

Close second:



Those Jim Brown cards are OUTSTANDING!

[jefferyepayne]

You guys are breaking out some tough, tough cards for show here! Fantastic.

The Caddell is very tough to find in decent condition. And the Kahns and Bazooka Brown cards are a bear. How did you get PSA to grade your Brown Bazooka without the dashed guidelines showing? They usually grade them authentic if you can't see them.

Thorpe, Landry, Namath, Charlie J (Hi Jeff!), Unitas, Norm VB, etc. All super cards as well.

jeff

[Chris-Counts]

It's hard to beat those early Bowmans, and there are many nice ones to choose from...

[TanksAndSpartans]

Awesome choice on the Tank Younger! There are also several other 50 Bowmans with American flags in the background as well.

[PowderedH2O]

[IMG][/IMG]

I started collecting in 1973. I grew up in New Orleans. My dad brought home a rack pack that he found while getting gas for the car one night. Roger Staubach was on the top, and Archie was on the bottom. Archie was my hero. Still my favorite card of all time.

[joelefsox]

Very Simple Favorite FB Card - Happy Feller

[HRBAKER]

I've always said a Happy Feller's better than a Dick Shiner or a Fair Hooker. Maybe even a Buzz Nutter.

[CW]

And always better than a Rusty Kuntz. Oh... this is football.

[porkchops]

[T2069bk]

[Exhibitman]

Picking one card is like eating one cookie; unrealistic.

I love the image and composition of this one:



This one always makes me smile:



I remember how hard I had to go after this one in 1974:



My favorite card of my favorite player:

[sockwell123]

i like the 15 yard hash mark... and the serious receding hair line.. and Chops on Yapremian
..I'm trying to remember if my hair had receded that far by age 27

[Exhibitman]

The woodside station wagon in the background does it for me, that plus the ballet arms...

[sockwell123]

got some 70's bears games with them advertising that car. the Ford Pinto..and some others.. Lowenbrau(sp?). The breaks are 2 commercials.. short and sweet.

[rsn1661]

Love my multi signed cards, especially the 3x5 card signed by Butkus, Blanda, Payton and Grange.

[GoldenAge50s]

I managed to put together complete Bowman sets in 1950, '51 & '52 Large when I was a kid, so I picked favorites from all 3!
I'll include my '51 Topps Magic also.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Love the vintage Bowmans. What's the story behind Topps magic? A college set because they weren't allowed to produce pro football like the 55 AA? I don't hear much about Topps Magic. Thanks.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

Love the vintage Bowmans. What's the story behind Topps magic? A college set because they weren't allowed to produce pro football like the 55 AA? I don't hear much about Topps Magic. Thanks.

The 1948 Topps "Magic Photos", 1950 Topps Felt Backs, 1951 Topps Magic, and 1955 Topps AA are all of college players. I believe this is because Bowman had most NFL players under an exclusive marketing agreement and Topps did not work to change this for football like they did for baseball during the early 50s.

It all got resolved when Topps purchased Bowman in 1956.

jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Jeff. Were the sets other than 55 AA current players while 55 AA was historic?

[GoldenAge50s]

The 1951 Topps Magic issue is made up of 75 then-current college players only. It is a very condition sensitive set because of poor quality control in cutting & many blurred images.

The reverse had a question w/ a silver scratch-off answer section that could easily take part of the card surface w/ it!

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Fred. I just looked over the checklist - I recognized about 10 or so of the names at first glance. I think that must be the same Bill Wade who quarterbacked the Bears to a championship in the early 60s - I think that team had a pretty good defense too.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

Thanks Jeff. Were the sets other than 55 AA current players while 55 AA was historic?

Yes, all of current players. These sets don't get a lot of love because they are Ugly but there are definitely some stars in them.

Here are some of the 1950 Felt Back stars.









jeff

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Jeff - those feltbacks look tiny - how were they distributed? I wonder if the rarity increased any because kids just lost them.

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by DezHood

Thanks Jeff - those feltbacks look tiny - how were they distributed? I wonder if the rarity increased any because kids just lost them.

They were distributed in a Topps product called Varsity Bubble Gum. Here is a complete Varsity Bubble Gum pack affixed to a Get Well card that Topps must have released as a promotion. The gum is still in the wrapper. I took the Felt Back card out.



I picked this up as a companion piece to my set a while ago.

jeff

[Footballdude]

Great stuff in this thread.
Picking a favorite card out of 1000's is tough.
Today, this is my favorite. I love the early Bowmans, and I especially like this one because of the diving towards the camera to catch the ball, angle. Next week I may find a new favorite.

[clamendo]

I think I am starting to like 1920s football cards the most. The dawn of the NFL and CFL. Almost impossible to pick one but I like the quartet of Granges... Star Player, #9b Shotwell, Sport Company of America, & Rogers Peet...


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[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by clamendo

I think I am starting to like 1920s football cards the most. The dawn of the NFL and CFL. Almost impossible to pick one but I like the quartet of Granges... Star Player, #9b Shotwell, Sport Company of America, & Rogers Peet...


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Dang Carl! My heart skipped a beat when reading this as I thought we had converted somebody new to pre-war

You are already the grand master of 1920s cards so I'm glad you like them!

jeff

[Publius]

Funny, this is one of my favorites too, because of the detail in the tufts of grass being kicked up by him.

Originally Posted by Footballdude

Great stuff in this thread.
Picking a favorite card out of 1000's is tough.
Today, this is my favorite. I love the early Bowmans, and I especially like this one because of the diving towards the camera to catch the ball, angle. Next week I may find a new favorite.

[jthorst75]

I know it was posted before but this Baugh has that "look".

[jtschantz]

Just bored and wanted to keep the thread alive

[GoldenAge50s]

Originally Posted by jtschantz

Just bored and wanted to keep the thread alive

Those are 2 sweet '52's, JT.