How many to a series? Let's see some 1955 Bowman miscuts and uncut material

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by G1911

It’s surprising because Bowman was using much smaller sheets before this. This Bowman sheet, if true, contains twice as many cards as a 1952 Topps sheet, whereas Bowman had used smaller sheets in the past.

I think Bowman was using smaller iterations previously but the sheets were not just 32 or 36 cards.

The funny thing about the 55's is the salesman samples can sometimes be found with light and dark woods.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by toppcat

I think Bowman was using smaller iterations previously but the sheets were not just 32 or 36 cards.

The funny thing about the 55's is the salesman samples can sometimes be found with light and dark woods.

I’ll dig through my scans, but from what I’ve seen in 1954 Bowman was not using 224 card sheets. I believe there’s a 1954 Navy sheet showing the full half-sheet was 96 cards printed once. I haven’t seen a full football sheet from 1954 or 1955, just some blocks of a 1954 that indicate they were 32 card series but an unknown number of slots on the sheet. That’s a bigger sheet than what others were doing too (Topps has 100 to each half-sheet in 1955, for example) unless Bowman didn’t do half sheets. Releasing so many at once is also a large break from the past for them, and doesn’t seem to have been done with their next issue. I hope these possible 55 baseball sheets still exist and weren’t destroyed so they can eventually be seen and photographed.

[G1911]

Here's an interesting one I found for sheet construction. The dark wood miscuts showing a blonde wood card have been at the end of non-high numbers. Here's card #121 Jake/Rufus Crawford that indicates it was bordering a 1-64 group.

Crawford is an example of one thing I like about this set, there's a lot of cards of obscure players who don't have many/any other cards. I don't believe Crawford ever appeared on another baseball card. He had 12 plate appearances in 1952 for the Browns, an was in the minors through 1957.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by G1911

I’ll dig through my scans, but from what I’ve seen in 1954 Bowman was not using 224 card sheets. I believe there’s a 1954 Navy sheet showing the full half-sheet was 96 cards printed once. I haven’t seen a full football sheet from 1954 or 1955, just some blocks of a 1954 that indicate they were 32 card series but an unknown number of slots on the sheet. That’s a bigger sheet than what others were doing too (Topps has 100 to each half-sheet in 1955, for example) unless Bowman didn’t do half sheets. Releasing so many at once is also a large break from the past for them, and doesn’t seem to have been done with their next issue. I hope these possible 55 baseball sheets still exist and weren’t destroyed so they can eventually be seen and photographed.

Two 96 subject half sheets does make some sense. 224 (not 244, suspect a typo in the Lemke piece) not so much. Topps went from 100 to 110 card arrays in 1955 and 1956 (EDIT-also 1954) but I believe they used Lord Baltimore Press where Bowman probably had theirs printed by Zabel Brothers, right in Philly. I think the divisors have to make some sense and 96/192 does, although as noted, they may not have done the half sheet shenanigans like Topps did.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Two 96 subject half sheets does make some sense. 224 (not 244, suspect a typo in the Lemke piece) not so much. Topps went from 100 to 110 card arrays in 1955 and 1956 but I believe they used Lord Baltimore Press where Bowman probably had theirs printed by Zabel Brothers, right in Philly. I think the divisors have to make some sense and 96/192 does, although as noted, they may not have done the half sheet shenanigans like Topps did.

The Bowman US Navy series has 48 unique cards. I don't think this is the sheet I recalled, but I did find one that sold recently showing 112 cards (i.e., half the cards are double prints if this is complete). It's possible the sheet was larger and it's not a border torn off at right. I don't know if they used half sheets, I have never seen what I am confident is a truly complete Bowman sheet of any set.

One thing that makes Bowman harder to me is that they don't seem to have had unofficial 'rules' like Topps did that we can make some deductions from (like a row remaining constant). This 1954 sheet is an example; the rows aren't a constant though there is some sequencing. Things seem to change a lot between issues and years.

The 'series' of Bowman's are, for many sets and years, deduced from availability, as far as I can tell. Like the divide into 4 series of 32 in the 1954 Football issue, and the 1-64, 65-160 blocks of 1955 Bowman Football. This 1955 Baseball array might suggest these were 1 series at issue, and 'shenanigans' produce the rarity discrepancy, not divides between series'.

I believe Topps was using 100 card half sheets in 1955 for both Football and Baseball. I'm pretty sure the numerous 1955 Topps football SP's are completely imaginary. 1955 Topps Baseball Series 1 measures 1-90, 101-110. I think 91-100, 111-210 (minus the 4 non-existent, + the 4 extra DP's) are probably 2 series where each card was DP'd on each half sheet, but I haven't come across a sheet from the later run(s). 1956 is fairly well known I think; I have made no headway on 1954 Topps baseball at all besides that 1-50 is possibly a series.

[toppcat]

UPDATE 6/24: AFTER I WROTE THE BELOW I FOUND AN OLD SCAN THAT SHOWS 1954 PROBABLY WAS A 110 ARRAY.

Topps went to 110 for 1955 Baseball, not sure if any Giant Size cards were printed at the tail end of 1954 as they may have been reconfiguring (not much else at all for Topps in '54 actually beyond the smaller size Scoop). The high-high series of World on Wheels (171-180) was printed oddly and maybe not by Lord Baltimore Press and the date and method of their issue is actually unknown, but other than that Baseball was their sole 1954 Giant Size issue I believe. The standard size print patterns changed from 1957-60 then again in 1961.

1955 and '56 Topps Baseball are 110 card half sheets. 1955 is printed very strangely and I think they put some "holes" in the numbering in case of specific player disputes with Bowman. Both years (and 1954, also with a weird array) would be excellent candidates for SP/DP study, especially 1955. And some early Topps NS series printed in smaller sizes like Look 'N' See are also wonky in terms of print arrays.

I will start a 1955 Baseball thread, I have a few different images.