Reflections on 1949 BOWMAN's (25 HOFers, many Rookies)...show-N-tell us of your cards

[samosa4u]

Ted,

You stated that the 5th series are tough because Bowman was in a hurry to get out the 6th (and last) series, so they rushed the 5th series. Did Bowman regularly do this with their other sets as well?

You also mentioned that the cards from 1948 - 52 were printed on a 38-inch (track width) press. Is this a five-color press you're talking about or was it a smaller one? I know that Zabel Bros. had many presses in their plant. They would use the big presses for the bigger jobs and small presses for smaller jobs. Back then, they did not have the technology to print on both sides of the sheet at the same time. After printing the fronts, they would then move the sheets to a smaller press to print the backs.

Oh, and I never knew the PCL cards existed! Very cool!

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Ted,

1st

You stated that the 5th series are tough because Bowman was in a hurry to get out the 6th (and last) series, so they rushed the 5th series. Did Bowman regularly do this with their other sets as well?

2nd

You also mentioned that the cards from 1948 - 52 were printed on a 38-inch (track width) press. Is this a five-color press you're talking about or was it a smaller one? I know that Zabel Bros. had many presses in their plant. They would use the big presses for the bigger jobs and small presses for smaller jobs. Back then, they did not have the technology to print on both sides of the sheet at the same time. After printing the fronts, they would then move the sheets to a smaller press to print the backs.

Oh, and I never knew the PCL cards existed! Very cool!

samosa4u

1st…..The first Series (cards #1 - 72) in the 1950 BOWMAN set are more difficult to find than the rest of the 180 cards in this set. So, this may be another example.

2nd…..The larger BOWMAN cards (1953 - 1955 sets) were printed using a 43-inch (track width) press.

The printing of all the BOWMAN Sportscards was done using a 4-color process.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[62corvette]

Ted,
I have 7 49 Bowman with double-printed backs. What can you tell me about those? I got those in St. Louis in 1972--same guy had uncut sheets of 49's, but I was putting myself through my 7th year of college and didn't have two nickels to rub together.

[Bram99]

Originally Posted by 62corvette

Ted,
I have 7 49 Bowman with double-printed backs. What can you tell me about those? I got those in St. Louis in 1972--same guy had uncut sheets of 49's, but I was putting myself through my 7th year of college and didn't have two nickels to rub together.

I have several of these, both individual cards and some partial sheets. I suspect the partial sheets are part full scrap sheets that somehow didn't make it to the garbage pile.

I also have a few graded examples from PSA. PSA thinks this one is trimmed, but I think it is more likely just a card cut from an uncut sheet. I am sure Ted has his own opinions or evidence about whether this is right.

One interesting thing about this particular example is that it card #36 (Peewee Reese) on the front, but on the back it is Reese #36 and Ken Heintzleman #108. These cards happen to be the last numerical cards from the first sheet and the third sheet of 36. I've seen the sequence of the cards on uncut sheets and they are not in sequential numerical order from upper left across the rows to lower right. But since Heinzelman is the the highest number in sheet 3 and Reese is the highest number in sheet 1, I wonder if that means that there was some specific pattern they used for the numbering sequence between the lowest and highest card number for each sheet. But since #4 is missing on the first sheet (Jerry Priddy #4 was skipped and printed on second sheet for some reason), maybe this is just a coincidence and means nothing.

Ted probably knows...

[tedzan]

Hi Mike and Tony

I have many overprinted cards from this set. Both Lo #s and Hi #s. Plus a full uncut 36 card sheet of which cards numbering 1 - 36 are overprinted
with bios of cards numbering 4, 74 - 108.
All 7 sheets printed in this set consist of 36 cards. And the printers would test a new series of printing plates by overprinting them on older series of
scrap sheets.

Cards from the 1st sheet (#1 - 3, 73, 5 - 36) overprinted like Tony's Reese card are quite plentiful.

The 5th sheet cards (#145 - 180) overprinted with 7th sheet cards (#217 - 240, plus the 12 variations) are very, very rare. I have only about 14 of
these....and, I have been searching for these Hi # overprints for 40+ years.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[tedzan]

Hey guys,

Here's an example of a Hi # card overprinted. Rigney (#170) was printed on the 5th sheet. The overprint of the Evans back occurred during a test run by the Printer,
prior to the final press runs of the 7th sheet cards.

I acquired this card (and approx. a dozen Hi # cards with overprints) in 1982. I have not seen any since. If any of you have Hi # overprinted cards, please post them.
I would really appreciate seeing these very rare cards.

Thanks.


.



TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[tedzan]

My BOWMAN PCL find...…
I received a call from a guy back in the late 1980's who grew up in the Philadelphia area. Jim wanted to sell me his BOWMAN and TOPPS
collections. He collected Sportscards as a kid in the late 1940's and early 1950's.


I was especially interested in his 1949 BOWMAN cards since I was starting a 2nd set. Jim had 150+ 1949 BOWMAN's. When he started to
describe them to me, I was in for quite a surprise for they included six PCL cards. He recalled these PCL cards were intermixed with the
regular BOWMAN cards in 5-cent packs. Jim recalls being confused, since the PCL cards were in the same packs as cards whose numbers
were in the 100's.
Incidentally, the cards in his entire collection were in amazing condition. Needless to say, the PCL cards were upgrades into my PCL set.


Here is the first page (of 3 pages) from my 1949 BOWMAN album. which includes the PCL set.


……....… Lee Anthony ……………….……….…… George Metkovich ………..………...…...….. Ralph Hodgin

…….. "Sheriff" Gassaway ………………..…...…..… Tony Freitas …..……...………..……. Gordon Maltzberger


……..… Ken Holcombe ………………..…………..…… Don Ross ……...……..…….…...…...… "Inky" Coscarart

…...….. "Jeep" Handley …………………….....…… Herman Besse ……….....…..…………...…. John Lazor



TED Z

T206 Reference
.