It's 1955 and you have a nickel

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by rats60

I would have picked Topps. The 54 Bowman set was the ugliest set of the 50s until they made the 55 Bowman set. The 1955 Topps set is the best Topps set of the 50s and ranks 2nd overall to 1953 Bowman. I can't figure out what happened to Bowman after great sets from 1950-1953. It is like they ceased caring in 1954 and 1955. I hated the 1954 and 1955 Bowman cards as a kid and never tried to collect them.

Much as Sy Berger was the driving force behind the rise of the Topps baseball card effort, J Warren Bowman was the soul of the Bowman gum company. Demonstrating great timing he sold the company at it's peak in 1951/52 to Connely Containers and the company thereafter lost it's focus in the gum card market.

Connely did make a heroic effort in 1953 to reverse the Bowman market retreat but the Color set, though innovative, was extremely expensive and still underperformed the 53 Topps issue. That plus the increasing cost of litigation over player contracts convinced Connely to exit that business.

Dean's book, The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman and Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955, is a great account of that rivalry