1948 BOWMAN cards....show us yours

[tedzan]

Prior to WWII, the BOWMAN GUM Company marketed their Sports and Non-Sports cards (1938 - 1942) with the Trademark....GUM, Inc.



When Bowman introduced their first BB card set after WWII, they continued the "PLAY BALL" Trademark on their wax-pack wrapper. These 1948 wrappers are very rare.

1948 Bowman 1-cent wrapper
..


The printing of the 1948 BOWMAN set is very interesting.....the printer took their 36-card production sheet and produced a 48-card set. In their 1st press runs
they printed cards #1 - 36. Then, in their later press runs they modified their printing plates by replacing 12 cards in the first group of 36 with cards #37 - 48.

The 36-card uncut sheet shown here represents the later press runs. Cards #37 - 48 are interspersed among the lower number cards. Therefore, this process
created Double-Prints of 24 low numbers....Single-Prints of 12 low numbers....and, another set of Single-Prints of the 12 high numbers.


TED Z
.

[rjackson44]

ted great stuff as always

[ALR-bishop]

Ted--- other than being old like us, why are the wrappers scarce ?

[tedzan]

Hi Al

Illustrated here are the relative rarity of the Bowman wrappers (1948 - 1953)....based on my experience over 35 years.


1948......very rare





............ extremely rare 1949 PCL wrapper .................................................. ................... regular 5-cent 1949 wrapper......moderately rare





1950......moderately rare





1952......most available





1953......moderately rare






TED Z
.

[tedzan]

" Where have all the 1948 Bowman BB collectors gone to...... ? "


TED Z
.

[Eric72]

Hi Ted,

Hope this finds you well.

I have been thinking of building the 1948 Bowman set. The small size and player selection are both rather appealing to me.

Here is the one example I have secured thus far.

Best regards,

Eric

P.S. Here are a couple of comments/questions:

1. I didn't notice a '51 Bowman wrapper in your post above. Relative to the others shown, how scarce is it?

2. The uncut sheet you showed might have intimidated people and caused them to not show their '48 Bowmans.

[LuckyLarry]

I collect the '48 Bowman baseball (complete 48), football (complete 108), basketball (need 19 of 72), and movie stars (need 15 of 36). I love them!
Larry

[ALR-bishop]

Hey Larry, what are the key football, basketball of movie cards in the 48 set ?

[Griffins]

I've got the other sheet (in 2 panels) than the one Ted posted, his have the sp's and mine the commons I believe




I've yet to see a '48 (or '49 for that matter) empty wax box or unopened pack in over a decade of searching.

[sflayank]

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8

http://www.baseballwrappers.com/imag...909d0a190c.jpg

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Griffins

I've got the other sheet (in 2 panels) than the one Ted posted, his have the sp's and mine the commons I believe




I've yet to see a '48 (or '49 for that matter) empty wax box or unopened pack in over a decade of searching.

Anthony

Your sheet is the same as mine....it is a modified 1st series sheet which includes cards #37 - 48 (that replaced cards #7, 8, 13, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 34).


TED Z
.

[JRO$!(]

Thanks, Ted Z! I started collecting the 48'
baseball set in the late 1980's,
when I acquired some older cards
from school classmates, 2 brothers
whose Grandpa had collected them.
I acquired some more of the set at card
shows in Cooperstown NY. I have always
enjoyed this small, under appreciated set!
I am stoked to see your collection and read your info.
Have you ever thought of organizing all of your previous
articles and putting them together all in one place, a website
or a book? Your love of the hobby and your vast knowledge
and willingness to share with us is Greatly Appreciated.
Thanks again.....JT

[tedzan]

In the early 1980's, I had all 3 uncut 36-card sheets of the 1948 Bowman FB set.

Here's the article I wrote for SCD in 1984 regarding this set......








TED Z
.

[tedzan]

1948 Bowman Basketball uncut sheet of Hi# s (missing Red and Blue ink).





TED Z
.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Hey Larry, what are the key football, basketball of movie cards in the 48 set ?

Al....pardon me for jumping ahead of Larry with this response......


George Mikan ................... Red Holzman ................... Sammy Baugh ................... Bob Waterfield

Sterling Hayden ................ Robert Preston ................. Yvonne DeCarlo ................ Sonja Henie
(one of my favorites)



TED Z
.

[LuckyLarry]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Hey Larry, what are the key football, basketball of movie cards in the 48 set ?

Al
The football cards were printed on three different sheets of 36 cards each,(1 4 7 10 etc) (2 5 8 11 etc) and the cards printed on sheet three (numbered 3 6 9 12 etc) are short printed and REALLY tough to find. The Standard Catalog values common SPs at $100 each in NM condition, and I chased them down for years! Key cards #3 SP RC Johnny Lujack; #12 SP RC Charley Conerly; #22 RC Sammy Baugh; #26 RC Bob Waterfield; #36 SP RC Bulldog Turner; #63 SP RC Pete Pihos; #107 Sid Lucian RC; #108 SP RC (last card in the set) Buford Ray.
Look for SP '48 Bowman football cards (numbers divisible by 3) in those bargain bins!

The basketball cards were printed on two sheets (1-36) and (37-72) with the second sheet (high numbers) being difficult to find and short printed. I still need nineteen cards to complete my set, 15 of these are high numbers! The "Holy Grail" of basketball cards (?) #69 George Mikan SP RC (inaugural HOF class '59) I think this is a $1,000 card in LOW grade!

Movie Star cards were printed on one 36 card sheet, so there are no short prints. I don't really know if any are more expensive or not? As with most non-sports cards, I would assume the first (#1 Diana Lynn) and last cards (#36 Ann Blyth) carry a premium. I did notice that the set includes card #17 Yvonne De Carlo who went on to TV fame as Lily Munster wife of Herman Munster LOL!

Larry

[Eric72]

I just picked up this single print from a fellow Board Member. The set is calling me...

[JRO$!(]

Love to see and read info about 1948 bowmans.......keep em' coming!

[mrmopar]

When I first started collecting cards, I came across this one somehow. I can't remember now how I got it, but I suspect maybe a friend bought it when he was on one of his trips. He would often come back from vacation with new cards he found at "far away" shops.

Anyway, this was by far the oldest card I had ever seen and once i obtained it, the oldest card I owned until I bought a 33 Goudey a few years later. It definitely looked funny among the 78-80 Topps cards I had in my collection then.

It was probably 1979 or 1980 at the latest and I was all of 10 or 11 years old at the time. I generally don't like cards in this condition, but couldn't bring myself to get rid of it due to sentimental reasons.

[ALR-bishop]

A card with history and character

[JRO$!(]

That is one Well loved card! Thanks for sharing mrmopar.