89 Down--1951 Bowman Baseball Completed in PSA 8 or Better

Davalillo

My 38th baseball set and 89th completed overall with each card PSA 8 or better is 1951 Bowman baseball.

I consider this to be one of the most important vintage sets as it includes the rookie cards of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Whitey Ford. This is one I have been working on about 15 years and have consistently made progress over the years. nThe biggest group I bought was from collector David Vargha. The final card came from collector Rick Millsap who sold me card #272 Billy Meyer--a pop 14 and along with card #271 Tommy Wright the toughest card in the set.

With the completetion of the 1951 Bowman set, I have now completed 5 of the 9 early Bowman sets in psa 8 or better--the others being 1948, 1952, 1954 and 1955. I need 4 cards each for 1949 and 1950, 9 in 1953 Bowman Black & White and 26 in 1953 Bowman Color.

The set has an 8.002 set rating with 1 psa 9 and 323 psa 8s. It ranks 6th on the PSA Set Registry behind HOFers Don Spence, Charlie Merkel, Marshall Fogel, Vintage Corvette and Durham Oldham. I will let it rest at this level. The goal remains 100 vintage or semi-vintage sets in PSA 8 or better. I appreciate the help of all collectors and dealers in helping me achieve my goals.

Completed sets in PSA 8 or better are as follows:

BASEBALL(38):

1936 S&S
1941 Play Ball
1948 Bowman
1951 Bowman
1951 Topps Red Back
1952 Bowman
1954 Bowman
1954 Red Heart
1954 Topps
1955 Bowman
1956 Topps
1957 Topps
1958 Topps
1959 Fleer
1959 Topps
1960 Fleer
1960 Topps
1961 Golden Press
1961 Nu Card Scoops
1961 Topps
1961-62 Fleer
1962 Topps
1963 Fleer
1963 Topps
1964 Topps
1964 Topps Giants
1965 Topps
1966 Topps
1967 Topps
1967 Red Sox Stickers
1968 Topps
1968 Topps Game
1969 Topps Super
1970 Kelloggs
1970 Milton Bradley
1970 Rold Gold
1970 Topps Super
1974 Topps Deckle Edge

FOOTBALL(24):

1950 Bowman
1951 Bowman
1953 Bowman
1954 Bowman
1955 Bowman
1955 Topps All-America
1956 Topps
1958 Topps
1959 Topps
1960 Mayropse Franks
1960 Topps
1961 Fleer
1961 Nu Card
1961 Topps
1962 Fleer
1962 Kahn's Weiners
1963 Fleer
1963 Stancraft Playing Cards
1964 Philadelphia
1965 Philadelphia
1967 Topps
1968 Topps
1968 Topps 4-in-1
1976 Wonder Bread

BASKETBALL(8):

1948 Bowman
1957 Topps
1961 Fleer
1969-70 Topps
1970-71 Topps
1971-72 Topps
1972 Icee Bear
1976-77 Topps

HOCKEY(3):

1962-63 Parkhurst
1962-63 Topps
1963-64 Parkhurst

MULTI-SPORT(2):

1933 Goudey Sport Kings
1954 Sport Oddities

NON-SPORTS(14):

1935 C&T. Bridgewater Ltd.
1936 Gallaher Film Episodes
1938 Ogden's Actors Natural and Character Studies
1939 Gallaher My Favourite Part
1945 Mutoscope Artists Pin-Ups
1952 Dixie Cup Nelsons Ice Cream
1955 Barbers Tea Cinema & TV Stars
1956 Jibco Tea Screen Stars, Second Edition
1956 U.S. Presidents
1958 TV Westerns
1960 Fleer Spins & Needles
1962 AMC Colorstars
1962 Topps Civil War News
1966 Leaf Good Guys and Bad Guys

calaban7

Great set !!!!

How does the master do it ? One of my favorites .---- Nice going Jim ----- Sonny

Griffins

Well done Jim! Hoping this is the year #100 gets logged. Hope to see you out here soon.

Brick

Congratulations. Great accomplishment.

baseballfan

as always great job!!!!

congrats keep knocking them down

Dboneesq

Jim,

Your collection is AMAZING!!! Keep it up. GOOD LUCK!

HoofHearted

Congratulations! This is what my dreams are made of. I believe I remember seeing pictures of your collection when you held a party a couple(?) years ago and posted them here. Very impressive!

mikeschmidt

Congrats, Jim! Nice to see another baseball set in the mix -- seems like 2009 included a lot of football and non-sport acquisitions for you. Hope you have a happy and healthy 2010 -- one per month, and you'll make it to one hundred by the end of the year! Cheers

Basilone

Well Done, Sir!

Davalillo

Thanks to all for the congratulations. This one has been particularly gratifying given the length of time I worked on it.

Sonny,

"How does the master do it?" By keeping a lot of sets in play. At any given time I am working on about 100 sets. Many I am down to 1-2 cards which either don't exist in psa 8 or better(for example 1961 Essex Meats Sihugo Green), are impossible to find(1960 Fleer Football Woodard) or just prohibitively expensive(1952 Topps--I can't spend $250K on 3 cards).However, most I can continue to make progress on-you just have to be ready when the cards appear. I am helped immeasurably by a steady flow of e-mails from fellow collectors(liike Anthony who helped me complete a set) and dealers(Mint State, Steve Novella and many others)and I try to check ebay at least once a week as well as the internet/phone auctions.

Anthony,

Sorry--I have actually been in L.A. fairly often the past year. However each time I come in I get a ride down to Santa Ana where I meet a PSA person and submit 500-1000 cards for grading or most often review. I then fly out of John Wayne the next morning. I will be out again next month--my turn to treat for dinner. Maybe we can get Baker to come too as well as the "real expert" on alterations.

Mike,

I think the pictures you are referring to were from an article written in SMR in late 2006 that I sent in pictures fpr. However I do have parties for collectors/dealers/graders from time to time at my house--usually when weather a bit warmer than now.

Jim

weinhold

Jim,

Further congratulations to you. I am impressed with the depth, breadth, and scope of your collection. Personally, you're kicking my tail in most or all of the Football Company Sets and Football Player Sets that we mutually participate in. It seems like a lot of your type of collector don't share their accomplishment on the Message Boards. I'm glad that you do. I can only hope that we'll see some more scans in your sets too.

Here's to you and your strong aggregate accomplishment.

-Keith

Davalillo

Keith,

Thank you--I appreciate the kind words. I don't know how to scan or I would(if I had the time).

You are right about sharing accomplishments. I have never seen Don Spence, Don Louchios. Charlie Merkel etc. post on a message board. The only HOFer I have seen post is Bill Bengen on the Net 54 non-sports board who last year withdrew because he was harassed by another collector. If you have followed my posts here and possibly on LTS when I was a member when I completed sets from time to time other board members have jumped on the thread to say big deal or who cares or worse. Maybe I am too thin skinned but if I have to defend my collection to these people, its just not worth it. I should say thqat whenever that has happened here that the overwhelming majority of the board members have been supportive and urge me to keep posting--so I do. I should add that many years ago it was much worse than it is now.

divecchia

Congrats on set number 89 in your quest for 100 in PSA 8 or better...

Donato

Downtown1974

Jim, You have a collection most people only dream of owning. Congrats on #89!!!

Bob

54topps

Congrats...Thats an amazing set.

RonBurgundy

Davalillo

Thanks guys.

Now how do I get to 90?

The easiest ways there

1966 Topps FB Checklist
1957T FB Checklist
1960 Leaf Donovan #72
1951 Topps BB Waitkus

Pls check for my sets under the Crandell Collection or Davalillo for more.

Appreciate the help.

Jim

tkd7

Congratulations Jim

Stone193

Hi Jim

Impressive as always - congratulations and thanx for the writeup.

Have you been doing this on your own? I know you used to have help with the auction searches and stuff.

Besides ebay and auction houses - do you have a favorite supplier of cards?

I wish you could post a few pics of your "man cave" - I know it's impressive.

Thanx for sharing
mike

markj111

I'm only 88 behind you. With any luck, I will reduce that # to 85 by the end of the year.

Davalillo

Thank you evryone.

Mike,

Nice to hear from you.

Am I doing this on my own--yes--but I do get a number of e-mails offering me cards for sale every day and I am not really tring to put 600-card sets together card by card so even though I am working on 100 or so sets at a time it is not as tough as it seems.

Do I have a favorite supplier? I love getting cards from fellow collectors--of guys on LTS that you know Anthony, Marc S, David Vargha, Frank Evanov and I'm sure others there whose names I cannot remember anymore have played an important role in helping me finish sets.

As far as dealers are concerned, Steve Novella, Rick Snyder of Mint State, Kris Keppler, Peter Lalos, Levi, Keith Abrams are guys who have gone out of ther way to help me in the past year--in most cases a lot longer.

Pictures??? Thats way out of my league--I don't know how to scan or make pictures show up on a computer.

Take care,

Jim

Mickey71

Sir,
Congrats. You have a wonderful collection. Good luck on the remaining sets.

Mickey71

baseballfan

the next one will be a nice milestone 90!!!!