[G1911]

Originally Posted by Volod

My favorite set as a kid collector. In the winter of '51-52, I had seen a few '51 Bowman cards, but when spring finally sprang, the '52's were the first set that I ever ripped out of waxpacks. I still recall the fragrant aroma of the bubblegum dust that coated the cards, but also the annoyance of finding so many duplicates in the third series - I think I had about a dozen Stanky cards, but not a single Mantle, which puzzles me to this day, since they were numbered so closely. The stores in my area of upstate NY were flush with Bowman product, but I can't recall seeing any Topps cards in 1952 - except perhaps in the collections of kids who had travelled to the big city to get them - and those had mostly been scissored down to match the size of the Bowmans. I preferred the Bowman cards anyway - loved the horizontally oriented action poses, especially the catchers - Del Rice, Eddie Fitzgerald. I did not notice the stock variation issue when I was an eight-year-old, but thirty years later, when restarting my collection, it was quite obvious to me that cards in the first two series were often dark and muddy compared to others. It didn't seem to me to be a "variation" phenomenon, however - I simply upgraded to brighter and more vibrant examples. The registration problem did bother me, however, and I put together about four complete sets in the early '80's by continuously upgrading each card to find a sharper looking example. Thanks for your post, and the opportunity to reminisce.

This is awesome, I always like hearing from those who remember when the cards were fresh or new. I'm too young to have opened any vintage myself, so I live vicariously through this.