1953 Bowman Color set - COMPLETE

[robsbessette]

Finally completed! It was quite the journey. Attached is my first 1953 Bowman I got on my 15th birthday from my father. Rizzuto and Martin. Just got my last one in the mail today, Willie Jones. 15 years in the making finally finished!

[cubsfan-budman]

Hey, thats awesome! Congrats!

[Harliduck]

Super cool! Nothing better than getting that LAST card...and what a great set. Great father son shot too...


Edit - BTW....what is your favorite card in the set? What was your best/favorite deal? Where is the weirdest place you found a card you needed? Sorry, I love asking these kind of questions to fellow set builders...

[ALR-bishop]

Congratulations on the quest and accomplishment of a great set

[darkhorse9]

Now that's the way to complete a set. Congrats. That one is coming up soon in my lists of must complete

[Paul S]

Terrific feat! Maybe my favorite post-war set. What's next? The B&W?

[robsbessette]

Super cool! Nothing better than getting that LAST card...and what a great set. Great father son shot too...


Edit - BTW....what is your favorite card in the set? What was your best/favorite deal? Where is the weirdest place you found a card you needed? Sorry, I love asking these kind of questions to fellow set builders...

I love hearing those kinds of stories, too. I'd say the Musial is probably my favorite, but it's really hard to choose. Mantle, Snider, Bauer, Ford, Berra, and Mathews are among my favorites. The Rizzuto/Martin card holds a special place as well since it's the first one.

The best/favorite deal was probably rummaging through a random card show in Woburn, MA. I was working on my 1958 Topps set and shuffling through 100s of commons from that year. For some reason there were about 15 high numbers in VGish shape that had no business being in there. I asked how much and they said $1 each since they were in with the 58s (what they were asking for the 58s). They were only commons, but some of the high number cards are really hard to get at a decent price.

Probably the weirdest place I found a card was on eBay from a seller who only sold books. Bobby Morgan, #135. It was found in between pages of an old book. I just like the story behind it!

[robsbessette]

Terrific feat! Maybe my favorite post-war set. What's next? The B&W?

For some reason the B&W doesn't appeal to me as much. Maybe it's the lack of big name stars. I only have the Stengel (love that classic pose) at the time being.

Right now I think I'm going to nail down the sets in my signature. I can get sidetracked pretty easily these days! Focus, Rob, focus!!!

[campyfan39]

Congrats. Love the picture!

[paulcarek]

Nice going, Rob! Some of my all-time favorite cards are in that set.

[sdkammeyer]

Very cool. CONGRATS!

[the 'stache]

Congrats! One of my all-time favorite sets.

The Musial is my favorite card, too. I'm looking forward to getting it.

Do you have any other pictures from this set? I'd love to look at them.

[Gmrson]

Great set. Thanks for sharing!

[brob28]

Congrats Rob, great connection to your father!

[robsbessette]

Thanks guys! I took my time, got the prices/deals I liked, and it finally paid off. Now I'll tinker with upgrading for the rest of my life, but the set is finally complete!

[x2drich2000]

Rob great job finishing the set. By chance is that a St Lawrence University baseball shirt?

DJ

[robsbessette]

Yes sir. I grew up in upstate NY and my father went to college and played baseball there. He captained the 1973 team while playing 2nd base. I ended up going to Hamilton College and playing baseball there. I played first base and captained the 2005 team.

We played SLU regularly. My Dad's senior year was his head coaches first year coaching. When I played against SLU he was still there coaching. Quite an impressive career.

My father found out he retired a couple years ago. So he reached out to some old teammates and they held a reunion. At the reunion his current players presented him with the game ball from his last win. Then one of the guys from the 1973 team had a big surprise for him. The game ball from his first win! At first nobody remembered or knew why this guy had the ball. But it turned out that he was the starting pitcher for the coaches first game and he saved the ball because he threw a shutout. He had it over 30 years and passed it on to the coach who did so much for so many kids at SLU.

Small D3 collegiate athletics at its best.

[tonyo]

Rob,
Congrats on the set - love the 53 colors! Also, I haven't seen a Big Ed's Pizza shirt in a while!

Tony

[x2drich2000]

Great story Rob. There are a number of coaches that were at SLU for a long time. I only recognized the shirt as I graduated from SLU in 2002.

DJ