Favorite Post War Set

[Rhotchkiss]

I understand this is not a pre war topic, and have no issue with it being moved if the higher power(s) so feel.

Discussion on the 1956 Mantle Thread, especially the “Topps > Bowman” post- made me think about what post-war sets I like the most.

Personally, 1950-1953 bowman are my favorite sets. I love the smaller sizes (except 1953), I think they look the best, and they have some of the most major cards/players in the hobby. Or, maybe it’s just I am a pre war guy and these are the closest post-war examples, in size and date, to pre war.

I also love the 1975 Topps set - normal and mini

What is your favorite post war set(s) and why?

[Seven]

The run that Bowman had from 1951-1954 produced some of my favorite looking cards. Their portraits and artwork were incredible. The 1952 Topps set is iconic, and I do love the way many of the cards look but I feel like the set gets too much hype, and doesn't even contain Mantle's true rookie. I really enjoy the 1955 Topps set as well. Even though it doesn't have my favorite player, I still think it's a beautiful set. It's hard to pick just one. It's like choosing a favorite child.

Best looking? I think it's the Red Heart Dog Food, hands down. Those colors really pop. I'm going to go with that one!

[brunswickreeves]

Great topic! I personally love the 56 Topps cards because they're relatively affordable and I give these away from my PC each year to each baseball and softball player aging out from my local Cal Ripken program. They appreciate them as cool old treasures and I hope it sparks passion and interest in the next generation of vintage collectors. Some Net54ers have also contributed cards over the years, for which I’m grateful.

[packs]

I really like the 1958 Topps set. Some really beautiful images. I've always liked the Clemente from this set. The portraits look great against the solid background colors.

[Section103]

In order:

51 Bowman
56 Topps
71 Topps
75 Topps
70 Topps

[Chris Counts]

My favorites are 1953 Bowman, 1956 Topps and 1957 Topps, but I also really like the 1950-52 Bowmans. I've long been curious who painted all those little masterpieces. Between baseball, football and non-sports cards, they must have created a thousand different images.

[hammertime]

1963 Fleer
1965 Topps

[Neal]

52 Bowman or 57 Topps

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[LEHR]

Baseball only, my favorite post-war sets (in no order):

1971 Topps - Love the black borders, facsimile autographs, and the photography used for the 1971 issue was exceptional overall with many cool action shots.
1960 Topps - I love the horizontal design, two player photos, and use of color, including the backs.
1955 Bowman - I love the woodgrain TV design as well as the simple but complementary back design. These cards have tremendous eye appeal to me in high-grade and scream 1950's Americana.
1954 Topps - My favorite back design of any post-war issue.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

1953 Topps. Stunning paintings of iconic players, uncluttered design. Just really does it for me.

[rats60]

1953 Bowman
1955 Topps
1965 Topps

[BobbyStrawberry]

'56 Topps
'60 Topps
'86 Topps (laugh if you want but I love them!)

[iwantitiwinit]

The real order:

1967 Topps
1953 Topps
1963 Topps
1954 Topps
1957 Topps

[bk400]

I am partial to the 1957 Topps (I like the proper photos of players' faces, as opposed to the caricatures of players' faces in prior years) and the 54 Topps (Ernie Banks alone does it for me. And then you have Hank.).

[Bobbycee]

1952 Bowman because of the artwork, size, & players within the set.
1971 Topps because of the stunning action shots/photography, black borders and excellent card backs with photo.

[Carter08]

1948 Leaf - beautiful, looks like Warhol paintings and has an added bonus of angering people into saying 1949

1956 Topps - beautiful design, just says 1950s to me

1960 Topps - looks like it was designed by Sterling Cooper

1975 - awesome colors, unique

[jingram058]

53 Bowman color & b/w together as one set

62 Topps

54 Topps

67 Topps

50 Bowman

These are my top 5 post-war sets in order of my preference. I have 53 Bowman and 62 Topps complete. I have the big cards from 54 Topps, 67 Topps, and 50 Bowman. It appears these sets would be fairly easy to complete if I were to pursue them, with the big cards out of the way.

[The Detroit Collector]

Both 53 sets, Topps and Bowman Color are my favorite.

[Jay Wolt]

For me its 1965 Topps

[jchcollins]

In the 1950's I like '56 the best - the combo of design and color just makes for a superior production quality. And those cartoons on the back are killer. I also like 1959 Topps. Just a very 50's feel to it to me with the colors, bubbles, and slant lower case names and logos.

In the 1960's I like 1962, 1963, 1965 with the flags, and '67 for the photos and clean design. I could do without '61 and '64 and '66 for the most part, though they are not horrible. Same with '68 and '69.

In the 70's, '71 is kind of it's own animal, but I love it. One of my few complete vintage sets. The first year Topps shifted to using action photos as part of the base card image - those things had to have taken young boys quite by surprise when they ripped into the packs for the first time in the spring. I also love the '72 psychos for the crazy colors and gothic, almost dripping team names. It fits the era very well. Beyond that in the 70's, I like 1976 and the caricature-like position player depictions. I don't like my birth year set ('77) that much.

[Andrew1975]

1954 Topps
1965 Topps
1975 Topps
1980 Topps

[Casey2296]

51 Bowman
53 Bowman color
53 Topps
56 Topps
64 Topps
Honorable mention
70 Kellogg's 3D
64 Fujiya Gum

In no particular order.

[Rich Falvo]

I'd put 1956 and 1964 Topps at the top of my list. For now. This is subject to frequent change.

I have a soft spot for 1978 - 1982 Topps only because those were the prime years of my youth pack-buying and card-trading days. I only just recently sold off the last of the sets I built back then.

[ejharrington]

1983 Topps

[Natswin2019]

54/55 Topps and 50-52 Bowman are my favorites by far. 56/57 Topps are very close though.

[Peter_Spaeth]

1965 Topps
1957 Topps
1966 Topps

[BioCRN]

It's not vintage, but it is post-war.

2020 Stadium Club is spectacular to flip through in a binder. 2015-2020 is a sweet spot for this release (imo), but 2020 Stadium Club has a lot of spectacular shots for the modern and classic players.

[refz]

No particular order

-1956 Topps
-1953 Topps
-1953 Bowman


-non sport (Bowman) Rockets, Spacemen set I think the images are stunning

[tkd]

I like 1958 Topps. Beautiful variety of colors, character and design. I also like the amount of star power in the set. They also look great with autographs.

[Hirbonzig]

1953 Bowman Color and
1967 Topps are my favorites.

[Mark]

Topps 56 and 67, partly because I collected them when I got started and partly because of the design /look, content on the back, and the players represented.

[robinsonmantle]

1948 Leaf
1952 Bowman
1975 Topps


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[puckpaul]

My favorites are 55 topps, 50-52 Bowman, 48 Leaf, and the 54 Wilson Franks. But the 52-53 Topps are great. Pretty much like all of them up to 1975 (except 74….ugly set).

[BearBailey]

1957 topps
1954 bowman
1975 topps

[vintagerookies51]

For me, it’s
1. 1952 Topps
2. 1951 Bowman
3. 1949 Leaf
4. 1956 Topps
5. 1965 Topps

[Mark17]

1965 Topps
1962 Post Cereal
1967 Topps

Love these designs and the photos, generally, but the Topps QA people kept botching things with my Twins.

In 1965, they made only one error while assigning border colors. The Twins were dark purple, but they made Mudcat Grant royal blue. And, they mis-spelled HOFer Jim Kaat.

In 1967, Topps made two errors while assigning team name colors. The Twins were kelly green, but Killebrew was printed yellow (same as Orioles) and Killebrew-Allison, Twin Terrors, was printed dark purple, same as the White Sox.

My Twins team sets have these really annoying anomalies in my otherwise favorite Topps sets.

[Aaron Seefeldt]

1948 Leaf by far my favorite







distant 2nd for 1980 Topps - 1st set I collected as a kid

[oldjudge]

Great post Ryan! I like the 1957 Topps set and the 1960 Topps set (because it was the first set I collected as a kid).

[campyfan39]

Totally agree! 1953 topps is my favorite set
I also love 1956 and 1959

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

1953 Topps. Stunning paintings of iconic players, uncluttered design. Just really does it for me.

[cgjackson222]

Would love to see this become a poll, although giving the varying opinions, an "Other" choice might score very high.

My favorites are '53 Bowman, '51-'52 Bowman, and '55 Topps.

A shoutout for 1988 Score as well. They have no value, but they had some really cool images.

[KJA]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

It's not vintage, but it is post-war.

2020 Stadium Club is spectacular to flip through in a binder. 2015-2020 is a sweet spot for this release (imo), but 2020 Stadium Club has a lot of spectacular shots for the modern and classic players.

The Bo Bichette card in that set looks amazing. Stadium Club is one of those sets I've always liked because of the amazing shots like the Bichette and then some of the random shots like the Bench w/ balloons, Boggs w/ chickens and Babe Ruth on the sax.

some post war sets for me
48 Leaf
53 Bowman
55 Bowman
59-60 Topps
72-73 Topps
75 Topps
83 Topps
89 Upper Deck
90 Leaf
91 Stadium Club
91 Topps (this set I always liked because of the shots like the Clemens and some of the action shots)
2020 Stadium Club

[Jason Carota]

1954 Wilson Franks.

[powell_am]

Like a lot of others — I love the 52 Topps, 53 Topps, 56 Topps but probably have 51 Bowman above them all…amazing rookies including Mantle and Mays

[JollyElm]

My endless love is the 1972 Topps set.

Back in the day, though, it was anything found at the bottom of a Kellogg's cereal box (if I was able to get up early enough and pry the new box of Frosted Flakes open before my brothers reached the kitchen).

[ClementeFanOh]

I'm with Hirbonzig, 53 Bowman Color is timeless and 67 Topps is simple and
clean. The 75 Topps set is growing on me

Trent King

[jtq81]

52 Topps
67 Topps
48 Leaf

I'm not sure which set I dislike most. 55 Bowman or 57 Topps. I actually own a decent 57 Topps set with every card graded EX-MT or higher. I do like the Brooks Robinson RC.

[skelly423]

I've got 1952 Topps at the top of my list by a decent margin.

The rest of the list is pretty interchangeable, but rounding out my top 5 I've got
1950 Bowman
1949 Leaf
1952 Bowman
1953 Bowman

[Kevin]

1950 and 1955 Bowman…love those designs.

[brianp-beme]

These are the ones that aesthetically please me the most:

1953 Bowman
1955 Topps
1951 Bowman
1952 Bowman
1976 Topps

and some that I am irrationally attached to:

1964 Topps - I just like the look of all the big letter team names at the top of the card, with each team having a different color, which is fun to see when grouped together by team.

1961 Post, 1963 Post and 1962 Post, in that order - I love the idea of kids cutting out the cards from boxes (thus my preference for the box 1961 Post versus the company issued). Because of this scissor or tearing aspect they remind me of prewar strip cards, which I like because kids in the 1960's and decades before in general just did the best they could with their fumble fingers.

1963 Fleer - I wish they hadn't got shut down so early...would have been interesting if they had produced a much fuller set than the 66 cards that got distributed. I think I like their backs more than any other post-war cards...they are so crisp looking.


Brian

[commishbob]

58 and 59 Topps are at the top of my list. This isn't based on aesthetics as much as nostalgia. One day a girl in my Long Island neighborhood showed up on our front steps with a handful of '58 cards. To this day I remember being blown away with the idea of ballplayers on colorful cardboard.
I got my first packs of cards ('59 first series) in my basket the next Easter and a lifelong hobby was born.