Monday, October 27, 2008

1950 Bowman Baseball Cards


1950 Bowman is an interesting set to collect because this was the only year in which Bowman had a monopoly on the baseball card business. No other national issues were released that year; Leaf ceased production in 1949 and Topps would not issue its first set until 1951. This set contains many great Hall of Fame cards of players like Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Warren Spahn, Bob Feller, Phil Rizzuto, Duke Snider, and Pee Wee Reese.


The 1950 Bowman set contains 252 cards. Cards #1-72 are scarce and are very difficult to find. Like the 1949 Bowman set, the 1950 Bowman cards measured 2 1/16" by 2 1/2", quite a bit smaller than what is now considered the standard size for baseball cards. The photographs on the front of the cards are colorized black and white photographs, with some black outlining.


The 1950 Bowman set marks the first time that Bowman would use this technique. Bowman would continue to feature this card front until color photographs were issued in the 1953 Bowman Color set. Most of the portraits are vertical, but a few of them (notably Snider and Berra) are horizontal.


The 1950 Bowman set marks the first time that Bowman would use this technique. Bowman would continue to feature this card front until color photographs were issued in the 1953 Bowman Color set. Most of the portraits are vertical, but a few of them (notably Snider and Berra) are horizontal.


The 1950 Bowman set also included, for the first-time, cards of non-playing managers like Casey Stengel and Leo Durocher. This trend continues today. This set also included Ted Williams’ first Bowman card. Interestingly, Bowman used the same Williams picture for the 1951 Bowman set as they did for the 1950 Bowman set. The last card in the set is #252 DeMars, which is very difficult to find in great condition.

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