Set Breakdown: 1953 Bowman Color

brucemo

The link.

bruce

RayBShotz

Fantastic! Of all the 50's sets that I have ever spent time considering, the 1953 Bowman Color has been my favorite with the 57' Topps issue a close second.
Brucemo; Your breakdown is just great! I might find myself checking out these cards on ebay myself tonight. Collectors like myself always appreciate this type of effort. Nice page!
RayB69Topps

pinhigh

Very nicely done Bruce. Man, I love this set.

theBobs

Very nice, thanks for sharing Bruce...

Mantlefan

Outstanding job Bruce. One of my all-time favorite sets! I've worked on this set for 10 years and I never realized that there are 2 different cards of Al Corwin! I guess Al's Dad worked for Bowman!

uniship

Brucemo - THANK YOU for putting together a great site. FANTASTIC! Required reading for diehard collectors. Thanks again.

Wayne8348

Bruce,

Although I've never collected any sets from the 50's, I've always liked the looks of the 53 Bowman color. My wife attended the last show in Chicago and even she commented how neat they looked. (And for her to say the is VERY MAJOR) I really appreciate the work that you put into the web site.

Thanks,

Wayne

qualitycards

Bruce, Great Job! Glad you chose that Spahn card, one of my all time favorites. A vibrant shot of him in that neat Boston Braves flannel uniform...jay

brucemo

I think that Spahn is one of the best cards in the set. I had a big stack of cards that I wanted to put in there, but I ran out of space. I don't think that these sets are all about the keys, but it's hard to find space to put everyone in there.

Responding to Wayne, part of the reason I pick the sets I do is that I think they would appeal to people who don't do cards.

bruce

ngfred

Bruce (or other 53B expert),

It's obvious that quite a few cards in this set carries a premium. Generally speaking, how many % above book price should I expect to win a graded 53B on ebay? I know that every card is different, but I would like a general idea with a ball park % figure.

Thanks!

brucemo

I finished my set over a year ago, so things may have changed. If you are doing a set in 7, the commons book for $45. If you are doing it in 8, they are $140. It looks like they are closing for a little under that, although there haven't been that many in the last month.

When I was doing the set, I did it in 7, and I tried to get the bulk of the commons for $30-35. Book was $40 during most of that period (it was $45 in 1999, went *down* to $40, and is now back up). Sometimes I'd get a card for $25, and once I got an unqualified 8 for like $60; I couldn't pass that up.

Sometimes odd things happen:

#48 Sauer PSA-7, $202.50

That's pretty crazy. Unless that was my last card, I would have passed on that. It's one of the lowest pop 7's, but come on, it's a 7.

#33 Reese PSA-7, $600

That's a good price for an apparently nice example.

#22 Porterfield, PSA-8, $93

Not all 8's sell for above SMR.

#154 Lown PSA-8, $2090

Apparently there are a few people going crazy for some high numbers. There were 6 guys at $1000 or more on this one. A hard high number, but not the hardest one. SMR on that is $300.

When that kind of high number insanity happens on a 7, I think it tops out around $300.

bruce

purelyPSA

Bruce - maybe I'm too much of a card geek, but IMO that last post is just the type of thing that you can add as an addendum onto your article - it gives a prospective collector an idea of what he or she is in for. As long as you keep an eye on what's being realized and update quarterly, I feel that's a needed section.

brucemo

It changes from week to week and card to card. Sometimes the stuff is kind of dead, and other times there are two guys active who are just starting and have a lot of cash.

I think I have enough in there about prices. If someone wants to collect they set, they'll figure out the auction climate pretty quickly. If I talk about pricing now, sure enough it will change in two weeks or six months or whatever, and I'll misinform someone and they'll take my word for it and screw up.

I was just answering the one question. Yes, it does look like you can get '53 Bowman Color in 7 and 8 for under SMR, but sometimes the roof flies off and the windows blow out. Sounds about like usual.

bruce

ngfred

Thanks Bruce. I'm trying to measure up the set before diving into it.

One other question: Does a card that go over SMR on a PSA 7 will hold true in a PSA 5? I guess my question is, regardless of which card, is the trend for that card (over smr, under smr) consistent regardless of the grade? Or does that also vary from card to card?

Vargha

When I was tracking these last year, PSA 7's almost always sold for below SMR and many of the common 8's were in the $90-$110 range. High pop. superstars suffered the same fate. However, low pop. cards and the short prints always went for well over SMR.

Vargha

Fred -- PSA 5's and 6's almost always go for well below SMR. The short prints are the obvious exception, however.

brucemo

Yeah, PSA-5's would get much action.

If you want to go that route, also check auctions where sellers offer individual cards. Sometimes you can get those for nothing.

In 2000, I tried twice to sell one of these in EXMT for $6 opening bid, and I couldn't get any bidders. I don't know if it's still like this, but it might be.

A good portion of my set came from a lot of 38 advertised as EXMT-NM, which I got for $380 from Paul Lewicki (lewicki@webspan.net) via an eBay auction. The cards were all great, and I got about 25 7's out of that and maybe an 8 or two.

bruce

Mantlefan

Bruce,
Do you know if Paul Lewicki is OK. I see 10 negative feedbacks for him from July and he's not returning emails. I hope he's all right.

jrinck

I never dealt with Paul Lewicki, but he's been NARU'd and isn't currently offering anything for sale.

Something must have happened to him. He seems to have been a great seller. They just don't go down like that without good reason.

brucemo

He is NARU. This is very bad. I don't know him well enough to call, but if someone does, it might be a good idea.

bruce

TWINRON

BRUCE
EXCELLENT ARTICLE-
TYPO IN THAT #121 IS BERRA, AND #117 IS SNIDER- NOT SURE WHICH ONE YOU WERE REFERING TO..
I HAVE A COMPLETE SET-- WHEN I BOUGHT IT , IT HAD THE APPEAL OF A NMMT SET (ALL UNGRADED)---WHEN I STARTED PSA GRADING SOME OF THE CARDS , I WAS MADE AWARE OF THE 10X MICRO WRINKLES, ET AL--- MOST CAME BACK PSA6'S AND PSA5'S--- BUT THEY STILL LOOK GREAT????--- NOW MY SET IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF DIVERSITY WITH 14 PSA5'S, 39 PSA6'S ,53 PSA7'S, AND 18 PSA8'S, WITH 36 UNGRADED "OTHERS'--
AS YOU HAVE SAID-- THIS IS STILL A PREMIER SET IN THE HOBBY. THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORT IN HIGHLIGHTING THIS GREAT SET---RON HOBBS

brucemo

Thanks for the correction, I fixed it.

I met someone at a show who was building the set in an interesting way. He had two rules:

1) No card could be PSA graded higher than 7.
2) Cards would be accepted or rejected based upon eye appeal rather than grade on the slab.

It's an interesting idea. I had a 6 of that Spahn card that had a monster picture, but the corners weren't there. I managed to convince myself that the 7 I upgraded to was better, but I'm not sure I was telling myself the truth.

bruce

ngfred

I like the 2nd restriction! Which member(s) here has said before..."Buy the card, not the slab". I will take a 5 that has minor corner wear, a bit rough on the edges, but perfect centering and clean picture, over a very clean white-border 8 that is a bit off center and a noticable small white dot in the background. The initial eye appeal is much more important than all the little picky stuff a professional grader will go through. I certainly won't care what the grade is if the low grade was due to some minor defect at the back of the card.

PlayBall

The 2nd restriction reminds me of a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth card that was on E-Bay about 8-10 months ago. It was in a PSA 1 holder, because it looked like it may have been pasted to something. The back of the card was almost completely gone, with a huge amount of paper loss, and fuzziness. However, the front of the card looked spectacular. I believe it went for somewhere before the SMR for a 4 and 5. Just goes to show that eye appeal can be huge factor when buying graded cards.

Bernie