1948-1955 Bowman - Series by Series breakdown and identification

[G1911]

The Bowmans are one of my favorite vintage baseball runs, with a very minimalist design until the final year. I would hardly consider myself any kind of expert on these, but I’ve been collecting them for most of my life and would love to flesh out the details. For, frankly, no real reason at all I like to separate my sets by series, recreating how they were actually issued in my boxes. This poses a challenge for the Bowmans, as there seems to be little direct evidence of most of the series. The uncut sheets of the 48’s and 49’s don’t seem to exist in the other years (or if they do, are seldom seen/shared). Below is the series by series breakdown for every year, as I understand it. A lot of this seems to fall into the “common wisdom” category of information that is listed in the articles and guides and makes logical sense, but doesn’t seem to have a source of direct evidence that I can locate to prove the assertion. I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts, theories, corrections, direct evidence (anyone opened a pack of 53-55 to help ID what numbers were in a series?), uncut material, or anything else.


1948 Bowman
1 series or 2? Two sheets were used, one with cards 1-36, and a second sheet removing cards 7, 8, 13, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30 and adding 37-48. Two sheets doesn’t necessarily mean two series though.



1949 Bowman
Series 1: 1-3, 5-73. Printed on two sheets, but these appear to have been issued as one series. Gray or white backs for all cards.

Series 2: 4, 74-108. Gray backs only from here on out.

Series 3: 109-144. The printed names on back were printed in script instead, and the players name was added to the front of the cards.

Series 4: 145-180. The name on front is kept, but the backs reverted to a printed name instead of cursive script. This series is the beginning of the high numbers.

Series 5: 181-216, same format as series 4.

Series 6: 217-240, plus reprints of 4, 78, 83, 85, 88, 98, 109, 124, 126, 127, 132 and 143. These 12 reprinted cards created variations with how the names are printed on the back, are or are not on the front, and the background color of some of the cards.

—— Pacific Coast League issue of 36 cards, a single sheet.



1950 Bowman
Series 1: 1-72 - again, it appears that the first two sheets were issued as one series. Tougher than the rest of the series, but not particularly difficult

Series 2: 73-108

Series 3: 109-144

Series 4: 145-180

Series 5: 181-216. Cards can be found with or without the copyright caption on back. Cards missing it are scarcer, and are much tougher to find than the missing caption cards in series 6

Series 6: 217-252



1951 Bowman
Series 1: 1-36

Series 2: 37-72

Series 3: 73-108

Series 4: 109-180. A two sheet series.

Series 5: 181-216

Series 6: 217-252

Series 7: 253-324. A two sheet series, significantly tougher than the first 6 series.




1952 Bowman
Series 1: 1-72. Again appears to have been issued as one series from two sheets. Each card can be found from two different printings, one with a creamer border and less vibrant color, and one with a whiter border and more vibrant colors.

Series 2: 73-108

Series 3: 109-144

Series 4: 145-180

Series 5: 181-216

Series 6: 217-252. Notably more difficult than the earlier series




1953 Bowman
This one is a total mystery to me. I would presume the sheet sizes changes with the great increase in the physical size of the cards. 160 cards in the color issue divides into 5 series of 32 cards, if Bowman kept this format. The cards are usually grouped into 3 chunks, 1-112 being the commons, 113-128 being short prints, and 129-160 being the rest of the higher numbers, but easier than 1-112. Personally, I did not find 113-128 to be more difficult than the other high number cards when I built my set. 113-160 constitutes 48 cards, so there may have been some short printing and double printing to place 48 cards onto 2 sheets for this series, account for the 16 cards 113-128 that have historically been treated different.

I find it very unlikely 1-112 was one series, and was probably 4 32 card series, or 2 64 card ones.

The Black and White set was issued after the Colors, and is the final series, even though the numbering starts over. Appears to have been a single issue.



1954 Bowman
Another mystery to me. Traditionally grouped into two batches, 1-128 and 129-224. The second does seem to be a little bit scarcer than the first group, but is pretty easy for “high numbers”. I would suspect there are at least 2 series among the low numbers, though the high numbers may be 1, as Bowman seems to have switched to larger series for 1955, which could have begun here at the end of the 1954 run.



1955 Bowman
Mystery again. Traditionally split into two groups, 1-224 being the more common low numbers and then 225-320 being the tougher highs. 225 definitely starts a new series, as the scarcity difference is quite obvious on the highs, though they aren’t that tough to find overall.

The 224 low numbers divide into 32, unsurprisingly. The first 64 cards feature a light colored television set, and are often labelled as series 1. This does not seem to be case to me, as I have seen some miscuts that show the adjacent card to alight colored 1-64 card was a dark bordered TV card. It seems to me series 1 probably constituted at least 1-96. There were probably 2-4 series that make up the low numbers. The 96 high numbers may have been one series, as it appears Bowman switched to larger series’ in 1955.

[Volod]

Greg: Seems like a pretty accurate assessment of the Bowman output. Have you ever laid eyes on the excellent and highly detailed article that Ted Zanidakis did for Baseball Cards Magazine on the 1953 Bowman set back in the 1980's? It may have been posted here sometime in the past, but I don't have a link to it right now. If you can't find it, I have a copy of the BBC article in my files and can post it for your dining and dancing pleasure.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Volod

Greg: Seems like a pretty accurate assessment of the Bowman output. Have you ever laid eyes on the excellent and highly detailed article that Ted Zanidakis did for Baseball Cards Magazine on the 1953 Bowman set back in the 1980's? It may have been posted here sometime in the past, but I don't have a link to it right now. If you can't find it, I have a copy of the BBC article in my files and can post it for your dining and dancing pleasure.

Hey Steve - I actually have not seen that! I have Ted's excellent articles on the 1949 Bowmans, I'd love to view a copy if you can share. I need to stop spending on cards, and buy a collection of old periodicals one of these days

[samosa4u]

This is an excellent thread.

I am currently trying to put together a complete 51' Bowman set. Prior to taking on this task, I laughed at the idea that the high numbers were more challenging to find. I used to think this whole thing was a marketing ploy. However, it has been a few months now since I've been working on this set and I realize that I was dead wrong. High numbers really are tough. Whenever somebody lists a group of these cards for sale online, there probably won't be a single high in there. I also think that the PSA Population Report gives us the wrong idea, because we don't see a big difference between the highs and lows, however, that's only because collectors are more likely to submit a high in for grading.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

This is an excellent thread.

I am currently trying to put together a complete 51' Bowman set. Prior to taking on this task, I laughed at the idea that the high numbers were more challenging to find. I used to think this whole thing was a marketing ploy. However, it has been a few months now since I've been working on this set and I realize that I was dead wrong. High numbers really are tough. Whenever somebody lists a group of these cards for sale online, there probably won't be a single high in there. I also think that the PSA Population Report gives us the wrong idea, because we don't see a big difference between the highs and lows, however, that's only because collectors are more likely to submit a high in for grading.

I did the same thing when I started collecting the 1951's, the high series is much, much more difficult than I had realized. I ended up with 0 highs from buying lots to fill in my low numbers and had to get each individually. I still need Murtaugh (alongside the Mantle and Mays I'm ignoring for $$$$ reasons). 49 and 51 Bowman highs seem to be the toughest Bowman series'. The 50 Lows, 52, 53 and 55 highs are all notably scarcer than the other series I think, but not as tough as the 49's and 51's. The 54's seem to be only a small difference to me. 52 Topps and 51 Bowman highs seem to be about equally available to me, if not as popular.

If you haven't come across it, there is an excellent article breaking down the probably printing date ranges based on the text of all the card backs and the teams players are credited too. I found this wonderfully helpful and interesting myself: https://www.pjdenterprises.com/baseb...man_print.html

[pingman59]

Great Super Sleuth work on these Bowmans. My experience with collecting the 1950 set is that the first 36 cards are tougher than the next 36. It seems that nicer condition cards (EX-MT or better) #1-36 are harder to find. #73 on up are definitely easier.

[samosa4u]

Originally Posted by G1911

If you haven't come across it, there is an excellent article breaking down the probably printing date ranges based on the text of all the card backs and the teams players are credited too. I found this wonderfully helpful and interesting myself: https://www.pjdenterprises.com/baseb...man_print.html

Yes, I did see that article, but the whole thing makes no sense to me. First of all, I was told that the reason Bowman printed the high numbers in smaller quantities was because kids around that time started to look forward to the football season (and wanted football cards instead). However, the NFL season didn't begin until close to October. So, how could they have printed the highs between late June to mid-July? How early did Bowman start printing the football cards? You will also notice that the first baseball series was printed sometime in April (the same month baseball season started), so again, why would Bowman start printing football cards way before the football season even started? Am I missing something here?

[Volod]

Originally Posted by G1911

Hey Steve - I actually have not seen that! I have Ted's excellent articles on the 1949 Bowmans, I'd love to view a copy if you can share. I need to stop spending on cards, and buy a collection of old periodicals one of these days

Greg: Here is the Ted Z article from the 1986 issue of BBC Magazine.

[Volod]

Sorry these images are so dang hard to read. The system does not allow pages larger than 80 kb to post, which causes them to appear nearly illegible. If anyone knows a work around of that, please comment.