A question for the REAL old-timers!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ocjack

Cover page and two sample pages of the Nozaki book. As stated above, it used to take research and conversations with others to determine error/variation cards. I remember roaming many card shows looking in the 1957 commons bin for Frank Bakep. Fwiw, in probably 7-10 years of searching, I was only able to find 2.

So there were some error collectors, just not the abundance of them today. Thanks for posting those pages...

[JayZim13]

I'm 75. The first cards I remember were the 1954 Topps. We loved the cards and really just wanted our favorite players. I also collected 1955 and 1956 Topps. I bought all my cards from a local candy store in the Bronx. I never saw a Bowman baseball card, but did see lots of 1955 Bowman football. My cards were important not for just the players but for flipping.
I stopped buying cards in 1957. Started buying 45 records and discovered girls!

[droid714]

Thanks to everyone who has responded, very interesting stuff!

I have another question along these same lines and I don't want to start another thread if I don't have to.

It has to do with the 1952 Bowman football set. I'm curious, were the large and small cards sold side-by-side, or did the large cards come along after the small cards sold out?

If they were sold side-by-side, why would anybody buy the small ones if they could buy the large ones?

I'd love to hear from someone who was there "back in the day"!

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by droid714

Thanks to everyone who has responded, very interesting stuff!

I have another question along these same lines and I don't want to start another thread if I don't have to.

It has to do with the 1952 Bowman football set. I'm curious, were the large and small cards sold side-by-side, or did the large cards come along after the small cards sold out?

If they were sold side-by-side, why would anybody buy the small ones if they could buy the large ones?

I'd love to hear from someone who was there "back in the day"!

Early in the Fall of 1952, BOWMAN issued their FB set. In order to compete with the very popular larger size 1952 Topps BB cards, Bowman re-sized
their regular set of FB cards. Then re-issued these larger size cards circa....Nov/Dec of '52.






TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[GoldenAge50s]

I may seem a bit windy to start, but I want to try & offer some perspective from another Net54 "oldtimer"! I'll be 80 come July.

Right after the war, in 1946, my folks bought a hotel in the small Western NY town of Attica and I grew up, started school & grew my interest in sports from the time I was 6 up to 13 yrs old, living w/in a short bike ride of the prison grounds..

My 1st cards were a few 1948 Bowman at the age of 8, but 1950 Bowman really was when I started collecting in earnest--I still possess the full sets of both '50 baseball & football I put together back then w/ cards from the local Rexall Drug store, candy store & anywhere else that sold them in mainly "penny packs"! I even picked up '49 Bowman "Wild West" cards & still have my "near-set" altho in rather rough shape as I "played" w/ them too much!

On to '51 & '52 Bowman, then came the BIG CHANGE, the appearance of 1952 Topps! Nice, NEW BIG CARDS--we had to have them! I started going to the town dump on my bike to find beer & pop bottles to cash in for card money! The SAD part of this story is the fact that we thought the set was complete @ 250 cards!! NO 3rd series cards ever appeared in my area around Attica, let alone a 4th series! It wasn't until years later I even knew more cards existed!!

In 1953 we sold the hotel & moved to my mother's hometown of Wellsville, NY, home of the "smallest city in the US" to support a Minor League team, in the Class D PONY League (Pennsylvania, Ontario, New York)--also Tony Conigliaro's only Minor Lg stop in 1963, to Red Sox in'64!!

I continued collecting until about 1956, when my interest in High School, 45 RPM record of Elvis, & girls, etc caused my boyhood collecting to basically end!

I was fortunate in one respect. I stored my collection in cigar boxes, shoe boxes, inside whiskey cases and put away in the bathroom closet as I wanted to keep them, being the "pack rat" that I was as a kid! Thank God my mother never threw them out when I left home for college & they stayed there until the '80's when I returned home & "rescued" them from storage!

I am now selling most all these cards on EBay & right here on the BST as I think it is time to let them go!

Thanks for reading my essay--if I have provoked any questions, feel free to ask me via PM/EM.

Fred

PS: My recollection of 1952 Bowman Football is similar to that of Ted, 1st came the "Small" & shortly after came the "Large", w/ BOTH of them on the counter at the same time in many stores! I went after the Small, but when the Large appeared, I went all in as I did w/ the Topps Baseball.

To this day I have my complete set of "Large" completely graded by SGC just as they came out of the packs! Some can be seen on the SGC Registry under Goldenagers 52's, as well as my 1950 FB set & 1953 Topps "Who-Z-At-Star" set (only one registered!) I sold all my Small sometime ago!

[GoldenAge50s]

Just realized I forgot to respond to the Error question!

As I recall, it was NEVER even a thought in our minds--all we wanted was to get all #'s issued and extras of our favoites so we could trade w/ our collecting friends. Even mis-cut, OC or gum & wax stains were barely noticed!---we were looking for the cards----and, of course, the GUM!!!

[62corvette]

Born in 1947, I was buying Topps and Bowman starting 1955, and was absolutely captivated when I saw a 53 Bowman Musial. To me, the most beautiful card ever. Variations were nothing to us, and blurred, miscut cards were thrown away. I traded gum for cards with those certain guys who like the gum better. Can’t brag too much, though, because I traded Whitey Ford and 9 commons for the Smokey Burgess I needed to complete my 1960 set.