Who was around for Bowman Vs Topps?

[Volod]

Started with the 1951 issues, as a seven-year-old in an upstate NY town. My father was an avid bowler and took my brother and me with him to the alleys on Friday nights, giving us a buck each to amuse ourselves for several hours. Rather than hang out in the smokey, beer drenched lanes - yep, authorities unconcerned in those days - bro and I spent hours in the dark little mom&pop store next door. There, we mostly pored over comics, but the proprietor had what seemed like mountains of '51 Topps Redback panels and CMAS cards selling for two cents a pack with the stick of nasty caramel. For some reason, he had no Bowman product - maybe a Topps rep talked him into taking an order and he had trouble getting rid of the cards, so he passed on the Bowmans. Did not discover Bowman until the next spring when it seemed like every kid in the schoolyard had thick stacks of '51's and 52's for trade. Significantly, the only '52 Topps cards I can recall seeing were cut-down to match the smaller Bowman, so that the stack would be uniform. Intrigued by those few oddities, I spent that summer searching for Topps in local outlets, which all carried plenty of Bowman, but with no success. I have to think now that Topps may have had difficulty moving its initial offerings upstate and did not make a strong push there until 1953. That year, the competition really picked up, and I bought many packs of both company's product. The '53 Bowman were definitely more attractive and strongly preferred among my peers, although I think the '53 Topps were more plentiful in stores and their gum may have been better. As a Braves fan, I scoured stores that summer trying to find more '53 Bowmans, since I had only commons and never did unwrap a Spahn or Matthews - until some 30 years later. I think the '53 Bowmans for the most part disappeared from store counters in my town by mid-summer, prefiguring the downturn to come. And, by the next year, 1954, the Bowmans were much harder to find, while it seemed Topps was everywhere. Just my recollection from a limited perspective - I'm sure conditions may have been different in other areas, especially in the large cities.

[GasHouseGang]

Steve, I know what the redbacks are but what are CMAS cards with caramel?

[Volod]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

Steve, I know what the redbacks are but what are CMAS cards with caramel?

CMAS = Connie Mack All Stars. Topps packaged, if memory serves, one CMAS card with two panels of redbacks, along with a bar of caramel candy wrapped in a pack that usually sold for a nickel. In a number of different press runs, team cards were also included - Dave Hornish has an excellent and highly detailed survey of these issues and their packaging at his blog: http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com/se...seball%20Candy
Recalling those caramel bars, I feel lucky to still have my teeth.

[ALR-bishop]

I have the 5 Topps 1951 sets ( minus the unissued 3 CAS :-))and one of the unopened packs shown in the blog that has a full 2 panel set of Red Backs, a game board and 4 either CASs or CMASs...can't tell which since they are sandwhiched among the red back panels. Unfortunately the two stacks of panels are bound together at the perforations with two small rubber bands. The rubber bands have probably not taken a great toll on the panels given their location, but over6 0 years have surely caused the ASs some pain

[Volod]

Al - You are describing the cello-pack, right? I have a '51 Topps 5-cent wrapper that held - if my recall is correct - two redback panels with one AS card between. It's as if Topps was actually using the more plentiful redbacks to buffer the delicate AS card against the noxious candy bar, and it was in fact claimed by Sy Berger that the ink used on the cards did interact with the candy to some extent.
Dave hypothesizes that, in the original press runs, the redbacks were always packaged with CMAS's, and the MLAS cards were packaged later with bluebacks. But, in the case of cello's, I suppose you could have either. Is that how you see it? How about taking some x-rays of the pack - you might have a Roberts, Konstanty or Stanky in there - just pulling your cord.