Unopened 1950 Bowman Baseball Pack sells for $25 K But Is It Really A 1950 Pack?

[Steve_NY]

Okay, Here I go again.

A graded GAI pack of what GAI originally called a 1950 5 cent Bowman baseball pack sold in October at auction for $25 K. I would have guessed somewhere around that figure, between $20 to $30K.

1 -- Same pack that was sold in the Mr. Mint auction in 2005 for $3.5K.

But I am still convinced that GAI probably mislabled a 1949 Bowman pack as a 1950 pack.

Three years ago, I studied all of the available research and concluded that the 1949 packs had a red stitching on the ball being thrown, and that the 1950 dated one cent packs had a blue stitching on the ball. But there is also no evidence of a 1950 dated or undated five cent pack.

Could Bowman have decided to use the same five cent wrapper from 1949 in 1950 as well? I have been searching for a dated 1950 five cent wrapper for years -- can anyone share further light with actual evidence versus heresay?

I know of a number of pack experts and I don't expect that they will be able to share any light on this issue. But over the last five years, I have focused all of my hobby collecting on wrappers, boxes and five cent unopened wax packs. In fact, I now own every five cent wax pack of all but six regular issue 1948 to 1973 sports related wax packs, all baseball, football, basketball and hockey wax packs. I now have over 350 to 400 such packs, which include many, many duplicates.

So we do know that an unopened wax pack of what I will call an unopened 1949 Bowman five cent pack has been opened and that five 1949 Bowman baseball cards were inside. Can anyone say the same for a five cent wrapper that held 1950 Bowman baseball cards? Yes, the dated one cent 1950 packs have one 1950 Bowman baseball card inside -- but will we ever know if Bowman used the same or different wrappers for the five cent Bowman baseball card?

2 -- Just a 1949 PCL update -- several years ago I did own what I will call it an unopened 1949 Bowman PCL pack that was green and orange -- but I wasn't collecting every pack at that time, so I sold it to one of the largest collectors of unopened wax packs in the country and now I am actively looking for a replacement. I had no intention of opening that pack to prove my theory and should I get a second one, it will also remain sealed and placed in my collection.

I am getting a number of packs soon that will include one Parkhurst pack that will reduce the number of packs I personally need to five. Pretty good for a few hard years of collecting and buying.

Stay Safe!

Steve
914-522-3853

[ALR-bishop]

Good luck on the last 5

[tulsaboy]

Wow, Steve! I have no information to help with your question, but wanted to say how impressed I am with that kind of collection. What a labor of love. I look forward to seeing some pictures at some point. The ones that I'm most fascinated by are the 1948-1955 Bowmans. The 54 and 55, obviously, are most common, but the rest of them seem tough to find. What a cool collection.
kevin

[cardsagain74]

Steve (or anyone), has there ever been an unopened '52 Topps high series pack known to exist in the modern era of collecting? (1980s on)

[Steve_NY]

Comments:

1 - Al -- Always a pleasure to hear from you. I actually need 7 if you count that 49 B PCL pack, but I don't consider it a regular 1948 to 1973 issue, even though I want to add it now to my collection.

2 - Kevin - I won't be posting any images as I am a dealer once every year at the National Sports Collectors Convention, and I do not keep any of my collection or for sale items easily accessible. They are all in storage and that's why it takes me so long to get back to customers; I probably have 30 customers right now waiting for me to respond to them. They want anything from T210 8th series cards to Superman 1940 cards to unopened rare packs. I would love to get back to everyone quickly but I am now in my 70s and it takes me longer to get to things. Sorry to all. But when I am at the National, you have my full attention for asd long as you want it. I spent as much as 1-2 hours with many customers.

3 - John -- There was a GAI graded pack that they claimed was a high number Red-Green-White wrapper that they claimed had a high number on the back of the pack in 2013. I suspect that pack was a GAI fake claim as many of their graded packs and boxes were fictitious. It has never been proven that a RGW wrapper has 52T high numbers in it.

Also, I thought there was a real high number Blue-Red-White wrapper wax pack up for auction in the past 10+ years too. I really don't think it went for that much money. Do I have one -- yes. But I am not even sure if it has high number cards in it. Too many ifs.

If you ever bid on one, make sure it is raw or graded by PSA and not GAI.

Thanks,

Steve

[Steve_NY]

One update: For the most part, I do NOT collect each different series of regular release packs between 1948 to 1973. So when I say that I only need 6 more 5 cent packs, It often means I have one pack for each given year.

In certain years, like 1952, 1953 and 1955, I did want to have the final series packs as well.

I also do not collect 1 cent wax packs but I have such packs for some of my favorite issues such as the 1964 Topps Stand Ups wax. I have over 50 packs of the 1 cent release. Just a favorite.

[cardsagain74]

Thanks for the info Steve. I uncovered the link below too.

Even though it's Lelands, the claims here sound pretty dubious to me. And just 166 k for 23 packs of these (in 2004) seems awful low too. Plus, of course, GAI.

If the claims are somehow true, I had no idea that the semi-highs and highs could be in the same '52 T packs.

https://lelands.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=19275

[Steve_NY]

Thanks John,

I remember that auction and even then it sold very low. In fact, now it would easily break $1.5 million. If it could be proven that the box had high series packs in them, that $1.5 million would mutiply over the posiibility of a Mantle and some of the other high number stars.

The fact that the packs were graded by GAI spooks me and probably did so to many investors back then, but there would still be many of us who would jump on such an investment.

I have three packs of 1952 Topps: the typical red green, one Blue, and one red green for sale. Wish I could be sure that the blue one has high numbers in it?