[sesop]

I had been solely focused on Tobacco and Caramel cards from the early 1900s until I stopped collecting a few years ago. Having had my interested sparked again, I return to the hobby and am dipping my toe back in pre-war vintage, but I'm also interested in the 50s stuff. I've always loved the artwork on the Bowman and Topps cards of the early 1950s. I'm wondering whether there are a lot of collectors of any of those series, and what your thoughts are in terms of popularity and value. Bowman always seems to have lagged far behind Topps in both- but I'm not sure what I'm basing that assumption on other than price differential. It seems like many cards have decreased in value over the past few years- are these also victims? Has Topps gone down more than Bowman? If I were to attack a set, any advice as to which would be relatively easy and inexpensive to complete? What would be an ideal grade (assuming I can't afford 9s and 10s- are there a lot of people out there looking for 8s or is 6 a good number to shoot for?) What's a fair price to expect to pay for an average, common Bowman and Topps card from their first year through, say, 1955? Any recent newcomers to these sets or are they dying in popularity? If you collect any of them, do you collect by set? Team? Type? What are some of the more challenging cards in any given set? Any opinions insight is appreciated. Thanks!