Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Joy Of A Completed Set - 1948 Bowman

Yesterday, I posted about finding Phil Rizzuto. He was one of the final three cards I needed to complete the 1948 Bowman set. Once I had the "big" guy out of the way, the last two cards seemed ripe for the taking.

 #11 - Johnny Lindell (I got what I thought was an amazing deal on this card - it was listed in VG-Ex condition on eBay, I figured out why later)
 #46 Herm "Wee" Wehmeier - funny for a 6'2" guy to be called "Wee" but it's all good.
 Now do you see why Johnny was such a great deal? Trimmed. Sad Trombone. It doesn't bother me too much though, as I already had two other trimmed cards in this set (the only way I could afford them, by the way...)


So, without further ado, here is my 1948 Bowman set, in all it's low conditioned glory:
 Hall of Famers Kiner, Feller, Berra, and Rizzuto.
 I will probably seek out an upgrade on Bob Elliott - card #1 in the older sets are often on the top of kid's stacks, so condition can be rough. I'd like a little cleaner front image than this one...
 Hall of Famers Spahn and Slaughter
 Check out the great story on Jack "Lucky" Lohrke.
 Hall of Famer Stan Musial
One of the reasons I built this set is for all the fantastic nicknames- Snuffy, Available Jones, Billy the Bull, The Antelope . . .
 Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst
This set jump started the modern era of cardboard - Bowman was joined in 1948 by Leaf, then Topps jumped on board a few years after that and the rest is history. At just 48 cards, this was an "easy" set to build. I had a lot of help from a vendor in the Twin Cities last year - Kurt - who is now in North Carolina. Most of the cards came from his table at shows. He helped me find Musial, Berra, and Spahn at prices I could afford and in condition I could enjoy. Johnny Lindell was the last card I needed. Rizzuto, Wehmeier and Lindell were all ordered within a few days of one another.

Thanks for reading!

16 comments:

  1. This is quite an accomplishment. Congrats!

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    1. Thanks, it was about a year and a half in the making.

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  2. Impressive!

    These cards don't look all that great individually, but all together like that, I can really appreciate them.

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    1. The front of the cards are really nothing terribly interesting, I am a big fan of the cheesy copy and the nicknames on the card backs.

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  3. Wow, nice job Brian, that's gotta feel great!

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    1. Not gonna lie, I did a little fist pump after putting the last three into the pages.

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  4. Wow Congratulations on the completion, even with the few trimmed cards. At least they are legit cards that were trimmed and not outright counterfeits.

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    1. Yeah, with the exception of card #1, I am not going to be looking to upgrade most of these. My main focus was having legible backs and as little paper loss as possible. I like a little bit of wear on vintage, within reason.

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  5. Fantastic. Shame on the seller, trimmed cards are supposed to be listed as poor condition. Lower conditioned just means the cards have character.

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    1. In the seller's defense, I don't think they were regular card sellers -- and this was the only 48 Bowman in their store. It's a bummer, and if the card was more expensive I might have mentioned something to the seller. As it is, I spent just a touch over $5, which I would have gladly paid in person for the same card.

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  6. That's one helluva completion! Congratulations on putting together such an amazing, super-vintage set.

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  7. That's awesome Brian. Congrats on the completion

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  8. congrats! well done and good luck finding the upgrade.

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