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What do you like in 50's football?

Every year I think about collecting a football set and in lieu of actually committing, I keep mulling over options. Lately, I've been looking at the 50's sets. One thing that appeals to me is the great deal of artistry in them, with either paintings or heavily enhanced photos, plus the designs are, in large part, a lot different from their baseball counterparts, and so they are not as familiar to me. 1955 Topps AA seems to be the set of choice from the 50's, and it's fairly extensively discussed on this forum, with it's great checklist, classic design, and a difficulty in nm-mt condition that seems to keep out the riff-raff (like me) but isn't on the order of a 1935 Chicle set. Plus, it has, as far as I can tell, the only sportscard of a Peabody (my name).

My favorite right now is the 1951 Bowman set which is, while similar to the baseball set, also a great improvement on it. The pictures used seem to have a great deal more action involved, and the players are all helmetless or wearing the old-style helmets with no face mask, so you get good looks at their faces. The name boxes are a little more attractive, the backgrounds varied, and the large, detailed team logos are also very nice (I like the NY Football Giants especially). Even compared with the 1952s, the artwork on the 51s seems to me much finer. My only quibble is with the size (I prefer the Large size), but nothing can be done about that.

As for the 1952s, they are nice as well. The larges are probably my second favorite looking set of the decade, and I'll have to compare and contrast the checklists.

In the past few weeks a couple dozen nice 51 8s have been sold on ebay, with prices in the $35-50 range for the commons, up to $400 for the Tittle and around $300 for Baugh. Don't know what the other major RCs would go for. Prices on 52 Larges have been double that or more, with Landry selling for over $900, and I don't know what the Lansford goes for in 8 these days. Can anyone comment on the 1952 versus 1951 as far as completability, affordability, any important info?

Anyone else feel strongly about a 50's FB set?
WANTED:
2005 Origins Old Judge Brown #/20 and Black 1/1s, 2000 Ultimate Victory Gold #/25
2004 UD Legends Bake McBride autos & parallels, and 1974 Topps #601 PSA 9
Rare Grady Sizemore parallels, printing plates, autographs

Nothing on ebay

Comments

  • JasP24JasP24 Posts: 4,645 ✭✭✭
    I collect strictly HOF RC's myself, but I think the 1951 Bowman have somewhat been "lost" in the shadows of the 55 AA and the 52 Bowman. Definitely an undervalued set, if not THE most undervalued of the 50's sets.

    Jasp24
    I'm here to question, not to inspire or build up. To live how I want, as I see fit,
    according to my values and my needs. Nothing holds dominion over me, I stand alone as the ruler of my life.
  • aconteaconte Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭
    I think the 51 Bowman football set is the best set of the 50's. There are others that are close
    but I love the artwork on these cards. I've thought about doing the set some day. But for now
    I've concentratedon just an Eagles team set. The commons don't come up on ebay alot and
    are affordable. I think 'Davalillo' and 'duner' know more about this set than others. I know
    some of the problems with this set include print lines, wax stain on the back, and some off-centering
    on some cards. Also, the cards are harder to obtain in nm/mt grade or better than their baseball
    counterpart.

    I say if you like the 51 Bowman go for it. It's a good choice.

    aconte
  • No one can disagree with the aestetics of early Bowman. It is real artwork, clean designs and top notch sets. However for my tastes, it is 58 Topps. I love those oval designs (and 59 BB is another fav as well). Possibly because of my age, I don't know the early Bowman players well but only from NFL films and stories. Many of the 58 players I saw play and collected there later cards, so maybe that helps. They are certainly a condition challenge and do not often come up in 8, let alone 9. Red backs that bleed and smear onto other cards and large solid color areas on the fronts that are a printer's nightmare.
    Helio, I would recommend to you the early Bowmans. Any of them. Heck, all of them. I have Wolfbear, Skinsfan, Nearmint, Evanov, Wang's and the like already to contend with for most of my sets. Don't really need anymore strong players to contend with for next year. I promsie to leave the early Bowman alone next year, so please, by all means.
    Fuzz
    Wanted: Bell Brands FB and BB, Chiefs regionals especially those ugly milk cards, Coke caps, Topps and Fleer inserts and test issues from the 60's. 1981 FB Rack pack w/ Jan Stenerud on top.
  • I image 1955 Bowmans. They have such wonderful color and the poses are second to none. I started a 55 bowman set only to give up when I lost interest in Football collecting. If I were to ever pick it up, 55 Bowmans is where I would go.

    Michael
  • Helionaut, i'd have to say if you have the cheese go for the '52 bowman large, it's by far my favorite set of the '50s. if you're in a hurry and want to save some cash do an ex/exmt '55 all american set, you can find 10 psa 5 or 6's on ebay at any given time for reasonable prices and the make-up is really nice...but not many great rookies. Furthermore, you'll really need to spend some cash to ever even break into the top 20. I've just started this set and haven't even bothered registering the cards, and probably won't until I reach 50%+.

    But i think any true collector has to appreciate the beauty and affordability of the '51 bowman set. it has 27 HOFers and about 5 RC HOFers in it along with 3 or 4 heisman trophy winners. However, it's much more difficult to put together than the 55 aa set, as there's less than 6,000 graded cards out there for the entire set, and many of the cards only have 15-30 graded examples total. as for prices, they really seem to vary, and availability cycles....with 3 or 4 cards that are nearly impossible to find in any grade. The cards you mentioned that arose over the past couple of weeks were all from jerry cyncynatus set that he recently broke up. IMO, they all sold very low because of the shear numbers he put up at a time. I personally bought 40 cards from him, and would have loved to upgrade further but ran out of cash...and into debt as it was. However, I think you'll find that SMR is pretty accurate as to what to expect in prices, 7's usually sell a little higher than smr, 8's are a crap shoot, and i've only seen one 9 in the last 8 months. As for 5's and 6's they sell significantly lower than SMR. If you look at my set in the registry, i've made a bunch of notations about trends and prices of much of the set, which i think will help you. Also if you're looking to get a good foothold on the set. contact jeannie who's got the set below me, she just upgraded about 20% of her set and is sitting on the lower graded stuff she had, primarily 5's and 6's. i'm sure she'd like to unload them in their entirety.

    Hope I helped, Duner
    Duner a.k.a. THE LSUConnMan
    lsuconnman@yahoo.com

    image

  • YOU are correct that the 55 aa,s are the big favorite for 50,s football. I collect football from all years in the 50,s. I can offer this the 50 and 51 issues are by far the best bargin for the price ,most go for a little less then smr.Forget 55 aa,s unless like duner said you want to shell out big cash.You cant touch any 55 for anywhere near smr.The smr so far off on that set not even funny at best commons go for 130% to 200% smr some much more. A orourke on ebay now the lowest pop count card is at 1k right now.55 bowmans not to bad either 59 topps are very easy and dirt cheap in psa 8. 52,s both small and lg no matter what dav says (from a post this summer) ARE WAY OVERPRICED. you cant get close to smr for them great if your buying but still very costly and murder to resell.50 and 51 seem to be best bet for something that would not only hold its value but has great art work.With all that said i love 55 aa,s the best for design just the price not crazy about. BUT IM BUYING ALL PSA NINE 55 AA,S image gl on whatever your choice is cant go wrong with any vintage fb set in my book.
  • shouldabeena10shouldabeena10 Posts: 1,357 ✭✭✭

    skinsfan - Quit telling people about my 50 Bowmans.


    helionaut - please ignore skinsfan as he is a little blinded by constantly staring at the sharp corners on his 1955 AA's. image

    I noticed no one has mentioned 1957's. I also collect those and I think they are a pretty good buy right now, and fairly easy to complete in 7's or 8's. How can you go wrong with Johnny U's rookie year? Not to mention rookies for Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Earl Morrall, Raymond Berry, plus almost 25% HOFers, a tuff error card, low pop high numbers and checklist.

    If you like artwork... the split design on 57's gives you a portrait shot (most without helmets) and an "in action" pose. it's like getting two cards for the price of one! The backs have pretty good player info and some great vintage humor and cartoon drawings.

    - Mike
    "Vintage Football Cards" A private Facebook Group of 4000 members, for vintage football card trading, sales & auctions. https://facebook.com/groups/vintagefootball/
  • jaxxrjaxxr Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    Shouldabeena10,

    I do agree, the 57 set is quite nice, you forgot to mention the set is also a begining of the "standard size" card format, for football, as well as sportscards in general.
    image
    This aint no party,... this aint no disco,.. this aint no fooling around.
  • aconteaconte Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭
    Mike,

    Here's one of my favorite 57's. Concrete Charlie himself coming at ya:


    image



    aconte
  • The current #1 and #2 alltime 57 FB Master set is for sale.

    ------------------------------

  • aconteaconte Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭
    72leadfoot,

    Are they being broken up? How do you know this? Any additional info?

    aconte
  • AlanAllenAlanAllen Posts: 1,530 ✭✭✭
    I'm with you Fuzz, I LOVE the '58 FB and '59 BB.

    As for what set to pick, I guess it depends on the level of challenge you want. '56 and '59 are relatively easy if youwant to start slow. Both are devoid of huge name RCs, but have a good % of HOFers. '57 is great for player selection and design, but has some tough low pops and I just can't see building a set where the most expensive card is a checklist image

    Joe
    No such details will spoil my plans...
  • 1420sports1420sports Posts: 3,473 ✭✭✭
    I only own a few football cards, but the 56 Topps Bednarik has one of the all time classic poses.

    LOOK OUT!

    Aconte is right on about the 51 Bowman Eagles! That is a set that I too have thought about collecting ... if I wasn't all over the place in terms of my collection.

    I need focus image
    collecting various PSA and SGC cards
  • murcerfanmurcerfan Posts: 2,329 ✭✭
    Tony,
    those are leadfoot's set.

    He is/was also looking to selling his awesome complete '62 topps set.
  • Aconte

    The 57 is my set, No I'm not going to break up the set.

    This is what I have listed on the registry under Tagatz'z 1956 FB, 1957 FB, 1958 FB and 1962 FB. The reason I have these for sale is because my wife plans on filing for divorce. I have keep very quite about this and time is running out, Once I'm served with papers my options are limited. Allot of my nice raw stuff i have made disappear for safe keeping. She doesn't know what I have. But my graded stuff she knows what I have because it's on the registry. So I need to find a good home for them.
    I will say that I'm dissappointed in several board members who contacted me and said they were interested in the sets, wanted a bunch of scans, Which I provided, Than waste my time because they have no money or low ball me to were it's insulting.

    Come on guys need a little help here, I will pay a finders fee to anyone that can find me a decent buyer that's not going to give me any BS!

    Thanks Murcerfan for giving my set credit!

    Paul

    -------------------------

    paulorruth@msn.com
  • aconteaconte Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭
    Paul,

    Sorry about the situation. I would only be interested in an Eagles team set. If I know anyone
    looking for a 57 set I'll refer to you. If you do decide to break up I would be interested
    in all your Eagles from the 57 set. I would not low ball you, need no scans, and pay quickly.
    I'd like to have a team set but I'm not patient enough to buy card by card. I'll do that
    with my red man sets but I'm too busy to chase a new task. Keep me in mind if you change
    your tactics and go the route.

    Good luck.

    Tony (aconte)
  • carew4mecarew4me Posts: 3,473 ✭✭✭✭
    Paul.
    I have the same interest in GB Packers from your sets.

    As far as 50's football, you HAVE to go with the 55 Bowmans.

    This is one of the greatest looking sets of all-rime in any sport.

    I think the 55 B's will take off in the next 4/5 years.

    Loaded with HOF'ers, color and design unmatched, small run and much tougher to put together than you think.
    (tuff 2nd series)

    They glow for crying out loud. And I'm %97.5 complete. image

    Loves me some shiny!
  • Paul i would toss my name in for any redskins you have 57,s or 62,s ect .so thats eagles/packers and skins heck thats a chunk of each set. lmk if you want to break them if it comes to that.sorry to hear of your situation. ART
  • Nice thread, Helionaut. Good to see one near the top that's actually on sportcards. Here are my favorites:

    1955 Bowman -- absolutely electric, very affordable and available, and a classic design without much stuff mucking up the card front. The gloss on these is unlike anyother 50s cards with a thickness to the lustre that makes these look wet and seem to glow from within. A stunning effort by Bowman, not to mention the many Stars and HOFers -- just missing a key crop of rookies is the only drawback (Summerall, Ringo, and Dupre being the most expensive rookies probably makes it the weakest rookie crop of the 50s sets).

    1953 Bowman -- a great small set at only 96 cards, almost 25% Hall of Famers and another 25% Shortprints, although only 4 rookies two of them are doozies with Eddie LeBaron card #1 and Billy Cross card #96 being the pair. As for the cards, it was Bowman's first attempt to put artwork onto the background of the card instead of a solid color or natural background. They used designs that were almost 60s-Groovy on many of the cards with swirls and geometric patterns and dot patterns that look etched into the wet ink that were never tried again. Plus, that big white football with team and player info on the front is so 50s kitsch that it is classic. On a couple of the receiver cards it's actually placed at an angle in the receiver's outstreched hands like some big football-shaped white pumpkin that he's hauling in. This was one of the final transition years from leather to steel helmets and many of the photos are of players sporting the leather. Unlike the 55Bs, these are extremely tough to find and never had the recent hobby discoveries that the 52,54,&55Bs have enjoyed in the last 20 years.

    1954 Bowman -- the easiest to find of the 50s set outside of '59 Topps. These are very affordable in high-grade thanks to the many boxes that seem to be discovered yearly. A little light on HOFers (24 out of 128 cards), it's got seven nice rookies including Blanda, the last card Lattner coming off his Heisman Trophy season at Notre Dame, future Supreme Court Justice Whizzer White, and the rookie card of HOFer Doug Atkins. There's a run of 32 shortprints from#65-96, plus a variation/error resulting in a Tom Finnan and a Tom Finnin card. A clean card design still in the big format makes them very attractive as well.

    Although kind of off topic, I'm also working on a set of players from defunct NFL teams prior to 1960. It's small and manageable and includes players from the original Baltimore Colts (began in the AAFC as the Miami Seahawks in 1946, moved to Baltimore in AAFC in 1947-1949, merged into NFL in 1950 and folded after that year), the Boston Yanks/New York Bulldogs/New York Yanks (1944 - 1948 Boston Yanks in NFL and then moved to New York and became the New York Bulldogs in 1949 and then their last two years as the New York Yanks before folding after the 1951 season), original Dallas Texans (played in one season in the NFL in 1952 going 1-11 before folding - known as the worst team in the history of the NFL). I know, pretty obscure group but fun to chase in the '48 through '53 Leaf and Bowman sets. Lots of classic defunct NFL teams in the 20s and 30s but no cards (@#!$%)!

    Kevin

  • murcerfanmurcerfan Posts: 2,329 ✭✭
    Before launching a new set, I like to "dip my toes, or would that be M-B-T" in the water by picking up a few psa7 or 8 commons and seeing how they grab me. Personally I don't care for the topps offerings outside of 1955 AA up until the awesome black border '62 set, the Bowmans are all pretty darn nice.
    The '62 design won't clash with your '71 GM set either image
  • carew4mecarew4me Posts: 3,473 ✭✭✭✭
    If anyone knows early football issues its K. Stonegate. image

    Loves me some shiny!
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