Would you feel different about 1953 Bowman B&W if....

[Volod]

Originally Posted by toppcat

My own thoughts, probably unprovable at this point, were that Bowman decided not to pay Joe DiMaggio any more royalties for his image and name in promoting the color set. His contract very well could have specified he was endorsing "color" picture cards. Switch to B&W, remove Joe's image and there you go. I can't see printing in color added that much to the cost overall. Joe's cut was probably on a percentage deal and it got too expensive in this scenario. Like I said, unprovable but a possibility to my mind.

Dave - I believe you are right about DiMaggio's contract with Bowman. The company probably anticipated possible poor sales and left itself an out from Joe D's cut by tying it to the words, "color cards." As a nine-year-old, I avidly bought both gum companies product that year, but I doubt that I even noticed DiMaggio's image and endorsement on the wrapper, much less cared about it. I believe that Topps was much more aggressive in its marketing, and its cards were probably much more visible on store shelves and available in greater quantities, as my fuzzy recall is of many more '53 Topps cards circulating in school and playgrounds that year than Bowman. I do recall being fascinated by the marvelous color photography of the Bowmans and wanting more of them, but not finding nearly as many as the Topps, which had an advantage of their own in the more entertaining cardbacks - the "baseball quiz" feature.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I don't follow the part about DiMaggio, he was never on any Bowman card, but you guys are saying he had a contract with Bowman?

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I don't follow the part about DiMaggio, he was never on any Bowman card, but you guys are saying he had a contract with Bowman?

.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Ah, I see.

[toppcat]

I believe there's at least one ad piece known with Joe D. on it as well.

[Exhibitman]

Today it is a star power issue, no doubt.

Has it been established how these were made? It seems to me that the color cards were shot in color and the BW cards were shot that way. The color is too spot on to be added.



The 54 and 55 sets are colored, probably flexichrome. The BW could be converted from color via an internegative process, so they could have been intended as color.

[Chris-Counts]

Wouldn't it be great to see the black and white set in color? By the way, why are there no White Sox in the black and white set?