1952 Bowman Baseball Picture Cards

[G1911]

The 1952 Bowman’s have become my favorite of the Bowman Baseball issues. With artwork not shared in other sets (unlike 1950 and 1951), I think this was the peak of the 1950-1952 art-based design path. I’m a sucker for art cards and facsimile autos, so this one is near perfection in my book. Talking about this issue with vintagebaseballcardguy last night made me take my box out and go through them for the umpteenth time.

The lower cost of the set has been a huge help in collecting it. Without any major rookies (Minoso is the best, one of my favorite players of the era but not costly), and a pretty simple high number run that is noticeably scarcer than the earlier series but not very difficult, it’s mostly paying up for the names. Mantle, Mays and Musial. I found that Slaughter in the high series tends to go for more than one might expect, but maybe I was just browsing for that one at the wrong time.

I know these were printed in 36 card sheets, but I’m not sure this corresponds exactly to series in the actual pack out. Whether the first 72 cards constitute 2 series or 1, I’m not sure of. Anyone opened a pack of these? The first 72 have 2 distinct variations, a print run on a tannish toned stock with a muddied and darker appearance, or a white-bordered and clearer image variation. Both seem about equally difficult, the muddier cards are certainly less attractive and don’t such a good job exhibiting the colorful artwork.

After picking up Musial on the BST last year, I am down to just Mantle to complete my set, which will definitely be a thoroughly worn beater and will probably cost more than 50% of the total of my set. I got my first one about 20 years ago, Billy Goodman (not bad for a common, .300 lifetime average), and lately have been filling in the Master Se. Besides the 1-72 variations I’m not aware of any others, which would make a master set 324 cards (thankfully, none of the bigger names are in the first series or two, though plenty of Hall of Famers). Perhaps Bowman used two printers to get the cards out in time, or perhaps they corrected an issue with using the lower quality stock and print part way through the run; as far as I can tell there is no real evidence for why they were done in a much lower-quality run .

My set is between poor and vg/ex, with little regard for condition paid while pursuing completion. Round corners and a crease are a card that has been loved to me. It would feel out of place to have 4 sharp corners! The only condition I’ve cared about is avoiding out of focus/misaligned cards, as the art is the great appeal to me in this issue.

Attached are my favorites among the Hall of Famers (I know Minnie isn’t in, but he feels like one to me). Snider clobbering one out of the park and Irvin in the batting care are particularly great poses. As a Bay Area native that grew up on stories of Willie Mays being the God of Baseball, it does bother me that his autograph is depicted as “Willie May”. Michaels and Hutchinson show the difference between the two printing variations in cards 1-72. Most cards are pretty easy to tell which version they are in photos, in hand the difference is pretty big.

The commons in this set shine, tough to pick only a few of the highlight poses, but these are some of mine. The background of the Coan card always stands out to my eyes, and Stanky is probably my favorite if I have to pick one.

Any one else love this issue? Have a favorite pose or image or player? Any oddities, errors or notes? Or do you passionately dislike the art style and those fake signatures that don't even look like the player's writing half the time?