1948-1955 Bowman - Series by Series breakdown and identification

[tedzan]

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.





TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by tedzan

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.





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?

[toppcat]

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?

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by toppcat

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?

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...…










TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[toppcat]

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.

[samosa4u]

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.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Steve,

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.

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.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by toppcat

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.

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

[Volod]

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