Building 1953 Bowman Color Full Set

[jingram058]

I began this quest back at the beginning of last September. Today it comes to an end, 160/160, following a deal with Kevin (8thAveVB) for the remaining cards I needed to complete the set.

I guess the pandemic and this forum got me going. When I worked out a big trade back in September, I was initially going after 52 Topps. But that set is colossal in both checklist and in cost; not possible to start collecting going in cold at this point. So my trade partner offered a fair lot of 1953 Bowman color, including Mantle and all the other big stars. And off I went, helped immeasurably by folks on this forum with advice. Then Phil (tere1071) stepped in with another big lot. How can I ever appropriately thank you, Phil and Kevin?

And with cards here and there from Sirius, here I am with a full set. It is all raw, in binder. I cracked out Curt Simmons and Del Ennis from PSA slabs so I could have all 160 cards numerically in the binder. And the quality of my cards is literally all over the place, VP to NM, and everything in between. There are printer lines, blurred images, print blobs, off centering, you name it. I am perfectly okay with all of that. I wanted a hands on set like I had as a kid. First complete set I have put together since 1970, 50-something years ago.