1952 Bowman Set COMPLETE...with some extras!

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

I thought I would celebrate the completion of my first big vintage project by posting some pics.

I started building my 1952 Bowman set in May of 2017 and picked up the last card this month...so just a little under five years.

My initial collecting goal was to build a complete 1952 Bowman set in EX condition. I wanted it mostly raw, but for any card around $100 or more, I wanted the security of a graded card to ensure authenticity.

I decided on 1952 Bowman because I LOVE the early Bowman artwork, it has a good player selection, and due to not having any high profile rookie cards, it can be built with a smaller budget. (1950 Bowman and 1956 Topps were my other considerations).

I've certainly learned some lessons along the way, including:

1. Yes, it would have been cheaper to just buy the whole set back in May 2017.

2. It was WAY more fun to build it card by card...even though I probably spent twice as much.

3. Many times I bought cards listed as EX or higher online...even some with high resolution scans, only to get them in hand and find wrinkles and creases.

4. I am REALLY lucky that I had all the high dollar cards purchased by early 2020. With the card price spike of late 2020 and early 2021, it basically would have put some of those EX cards out of reach for my budget, and I would have had to settle for lower grades on the key cards.

On top of the main 252 card set, I picked up some other fun items along the way.

OK, enough talk, here are some pics of my completed project:

1. First off, here are the anchor cards, and by far the cornerstones of my entire collection:

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2. Next, although I prefer SGC, these two HOF cards fit my criteria and my budget. I considered getting them re-holdered, but decided that would be a waste of money.

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3. The rest of my graded cards.
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4. Some raw gems. Initially I wanted all $100 cards graded, but I bought the Minoso rookie early...and paid $8.50. I don't think I could get it for that price now

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5. Anyone building the 1952 Bowman set likely knows that only "error" card recognized is the Bill Werle "Missing W" card. These can be surprisingly hard to track down at a reasonable price. When I landed one for about $20, I was pretty thrilled. So much so that I continued to pick them up when I could find them. So I currently have three. I figured maybe I'll sell or trade the extras....but I might just keep going and see how many I can collect. Here are the three I have, along with the "normal" Werle at the top.

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6. I thought having a wrapper would be cool, so added a 1 cent. I kind of missed the boat on wrappers. When I started, you could still find them for about 30 bucks. I wound up paying triple that because they are getting scarce.

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7. I lucked in to this one. A couple years ago, someone put up a batch of uncut panels on eBay for a reasonable price, so I snatched one up. Not as cool as a full panel, but a good way to get some uncut cards AND they fit in my binder in a full page sheet.

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8. This was listed on eBay as a PROOF card. Not sure if it is actually a proof card, but it's a sharp blank back, and I thought it was cool.

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So that's it for the goodies, but here are a few more pics on how I organized my binder. I went back and forth on how to fill the holes for the graded cards. I started with full color reprints, but since I have the graded cards at the back in four pocket pages, I didn't want to spoil the experience of seeing the full color beauties, so I put black and white images of the cards in the binder position, to preserve the "reveal" at the end of the binder set for the real cards. Here's an example of the page with Mantle.

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I used a thick page divider between the last page of raw cards and the first four pocket page of graded. Otherwise I was afraid the hard edges of slabs would harm the raw cards next to it. The stiff page divider provides protection.

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I went with an Archival Methods binder with slip cover to protect them. It's a solid quality binder. Ultra Pro nine pocket pages for the raw cards and the four pocket for the graded at the back.

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And that's it! As I mentioned above since a handful of the cards I bought online don't meet my EX criteria, I'll probably slowly upgrade those in the future, but I'm in no rush...they all have pretty solid eye appeal.

There are also a few other goodies out there I might add some day...if I can find them for a reasonable price including a 5 cent wrapper, an original painting of the production art, one of the full size prototype black and white cards from the archives, etc. All of these things are out there, just not at prices I want to spend right now.

But mostly I'm going to sit back and enjoy them. It's been a fun project and it's satisfying to have it completed!

If you all have any 1952 Bowman cards or goodies you want to share, please post them!

[tulsaboy]

Neat writeup, and great looking set! Thanks for sharing your collecting journey with us!
kevin

[ALR-bishop]

Congrats on finishing the set John. And you have some great looking cards

[stkuhl]

Neat story. I'm with you on collecting sets card by card. I also figured out like you that purchasing them one at a time is much less cost efficient than buying the whole set at once. But part of the fun to me is the slow steady progress and great sense of satisfaction when you complete a set.

What's your next set to tackle?

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Originally Posted by stkuhl

What's your next set to tackle?

Good question. I currently have a start on the 1931 W-517 set and 1935 Goudey 4 in 1 set. So I'll probably slowly add cards to those.

As I mentioned the price increase of cards in 2020 and 2021 has caused me to rethink what I can collect within my budget. So potentially I'll build a set from the 60's or 70's (I've always liked 1975 Topps).

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Originally Posted by tulsaboy

Neat writeup, and great looking set! Thanks for sharing your collecting journey with us!
kevin

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Congrats on finishing the set John. And you have some great looking cards

Thanks guys!

[John1941]

Very nice! 1952 Bowman is one of my favorite sets, and I'm sort of working on completing it. 26/252 - I probably won't ever complete it, but I'll try to get as many as possible.

[jayshum]

John, congrats on putting together a great looking set.

[Harliduck]

WOW...that is awesome...nice work! A set I have yet to even consider, a classic. Love the binder...

[BobC]

Congrats John, that is fantastic.

[Elberson]

Awesome!!!!!

[G1911]

Some very cool extras alongside the main set!

[judgebuck]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing. I've got that set, too, and I love it. David

[SD]

Impressive collection, Congrats

[Collectorsince62]

Great additions to accentuate your set! I also have an EX set and often wonder how many complete sets are out there - from any of the Bowman offerings. I'll bet it's more than most people think.

[Vegas Cards]

Congratulations on finishing. The Musial is one of the best looking cards of all time in my opinion, and that Mantle is amazing!

[Volod]

Your set is higher grade than mine, John, and I spent ten years putting mine together, constantly upgrading due to the prevalence of out-of-register cards. Your Mantle and Mays cards are slightly above mine, but mine cost only about a hundred bucks back in the '80's . I really admire your addendums to the basic set. Have you ever considered the extension set that was issued in the '80's?

[Vintageloz]

Great set John! Where did you find the thick page dividers?

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! It's been a fun project and I'm thankful to Net54 as a place to share my thoughts and images and discuss the set.

Originally Posted by Collectorsince62

Great additions to accentuate your set! I also have an EX set and often wonder how many complete sets are out there - from any of the Bowman offerings. I'll bet it's more than most people think.

Yes, I think there are probably quite a few 1952 Bowman sets out there. It is a great "starter" set for vintage collectors. Great names, smaller than most sets of that era, and relaively affordable when compared to some of the other early 50's sets.

Originally Posted by Volod

Your set is higher grade than mine, John, and I spent ten years putting mine together, constantly upgrading due to the prevalence of out-of-register cards. Your Mantle and Mays cards are slightly above mine, but mine cost only about a hundred bucks back in the '80's . I really admire your addendums to the basic set. Have you ever considered the extension set that was issued in the '80's?

Wow, I wish I would have started MINE in the 80's...picking up Mantle and Mays for a hundred bucks sounds really nice I've gone back and forth about the extension set. From what I understand, there were a series of paintings discovered in the archives that were initially intended to be made into cards for 1952 Bowman, but they were never completed...so they printed some up in the 80's. On one hand, they sort of belong in the set, but at the same time, they are "modern" creations. Not sure if they belong in my binder. But I might pick up a set if I come across one.

Originally Posted by Vintageloz

Great set John! Where did you find the thick page dividers?

The page dividers are also from Archival Methods. They are technically called "Archival Page Lifters", and they are relatively inexpensive (unlike the binders ). Here's a link:

https://www.archivalmethods.com/prod...l-page-lifters

[Zach Wheat]

Nice, John. I enjoyed looking at your collection. You have a great eye for centering.

Z