Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Vintage Bowman, Non-Minty Fresh Condition

I've always been a fan of Bowman, being a rookie collector. In the last year, I've made one of my collecting goals be to acquire a card from each of the vintage Bowman sets. I try to keep myself on a tight budget when collecting, always looking for affordable deals. So, these cards are loveably roughed up. I hope you enjoy their scars, their life experience, as much as I do.

Vic Wertz from the 1952 Bowman set. I snagged this one off of the Ebays for less than two bucks shipped. I consider that quite a deal since he's in a Tigers uniform and Mr.Wertz actually had a respectable career: 17 MLB seasons, a few all-star appearances, his name even tossed around in HOF voting. Sure, the card is so thin it almost feels like a threadbare T-shirt and there's that big crease in the middle, as if the previous owner liked to make Vic bow to the empty stands in the background. All that wear just makes me dig this card more. This was such a great set for Bowman. I miss the hell out of Bowman Heritage.
Here's Del Rice from the 1951 set. He also had 17 seasons and one all-star appearance, but he was no Wertz. This card is in pretty good shape, probably the best of my old Bowmans, and I dig the old catcher getup. The catchers seemed to have the most interesting cards from these early sets.

Another great looking catcher card from the 1950 set: Bruce "Bull" Edwards. This one has some crazy writing scratched into it. I love that writing, because that's what allowed me to pick it up from my local card shop for almost nothing. The back has some more mysterious writing.
Hmmm... Some kid wrote Dodgers and Cubs, and I guess he wanted to document the Bull's trade. Think of this as a Bowman Traded card, then.

The oldest card I own: Ray Lamanno from the 1949 set. Another catcher, too, with that extended thumb on the glove. Ray's looking up toward a pop-up, or maybe some incoming pigeon bombs, but what he doesn't know is someone has scratched "Grounder to 36" behind Ray's back. What are you doing looking for a pop-up, Ray? Obviously, it's a grounder.
On the back, someone has reminded us Ray's on the Reds. Thank, buddy. Really, thanks for making this card in my price range. The signature in red on the back looked so great in this set, although the fronts were much less interesting than the Bowman sets that would follow. And you gotta love that game and bank advertisement that eats up half this card. Too bad I just missed the expiration date to order one.

So, doesn't this make you miss Bowman Heritage? Bring it back, Topps! And just so you know, all of these cards cost less than two dollars respectively. You can't beat vintage collecting on a budget. I'll post my other vintage Bowman soon. Thanks for reading.

8 comments:

  1. awesome looking cards...

    welcome to blogging!!!

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  2. I saw your comment over at Play at the Plate's contest post. Excellent blog, and yeah, I'm with you on the Bowman Heritage needing to come back.

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  3. I love these old Bowman sets, they're some of my favorites of all time. If I had to choose I'd probably say that the 51's are my favorites.

    Although for some reason I've never really liked the Bowman Heritage sets.

    Nice blog BTW, I look forward to reading more.

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  4. After the first two players you featured, I hope that you were going with a former Orioles theme, but that's just how I think.

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  5. I love the old Bowman sets. A few years ago, I picked up a 1955 Jerry Coleman (the one where he looks like he is in an old TV set), and I sent it to him to sign and got it back with a nice looking signature on it.

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  6. Great looking blog - I'll keep checking back (and I'll add you to my blog roll as well).

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  7. I forgot how nice those cards look. Now I'll need to collect those sets. Yeah, I have that kind of money lying around. (Hah!) I have taken your goal of acquiring a card from each set a good bit further - to every issue made (well over 30,000 cards). It won't ever finish, but like you, I look for less expensive versions. My collection has so many creases you'd think it was a shirt left under a mattress for a few years.

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  8. Excellent vintage, especially the catchers in that old gear. I got a 1952 Topps Bruce Edwards from the Topps Million Card Giveaway...well, I don't have it yet, but should soon. I love those old cards with "character"! I saw the link on my contest post and now I'm following! Keep up the good work.

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