March 25, 2021: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/25/2021
Here’s the granddaddy of all the Bowman baseball issues, the coveted 1953 Bowman Baseball Color set that is widely regarded as perhaps the company’s finest effort and certainly one of the most important of the postwar baseball card sets. A half-dozen keys, including Mickey Mantle (PSA 4), Stan Musial (PSA 4), Yogi Berra (PSA 6) Pee Wee Reese (PSA 4.5), Whitey Ford (PSA 5) and Bob Feller (PSA 6 o/c) provide a nice glimpse into the broader condition range. With clean fronts that display a blazing full-color photograph and nothing else, the 2 ½-by-3 ¾-inch cards are routinely praised for the uncluttered presentation and remarkable use of color photography as opposed to the colorized or hand-painted black-and-white photographs that prevailed up to that time. The offered set is striking in its bold, classic presentation, with nearly 2/3 of the set reaching a fabulous Ex-Mt to Near-Mint condition, which is dramatically better than these cards are typically found in mature collections. It comes out to 60 percent Ex-Mt to Near-Mint, 28 percent VG-Ex to Excellent and 12 percent Good to Very Good. About three dozen cards have the kind of centering that might prompt thoughts of an upgrade, though not all of those would be severe enough to dictate a formal off-center designation. The breakdown of keys: No. 1 – VG-Ex, 9 Rizzuto – Ex-Mt, 10 Ashburn – Excellent, 18 Fox – Ex, 32 Musial – PSA 4, 33 Reese – PSA 4, 40 Doby – Very Good, 44 Berra/Mantle/Bauer – Good, 46 Campanella – VG, 51 Irvin – Near-Mint, 55 Durocher – VG-Ex, 57 Boudreau – Nr-Mt, 59 Mantle – PSA 4, 61 Kell – Good, 62 Kluszewski – Ex-Mt, 65 Roberts – Ex-Mt, 80 Kiner – Ex-Mt o/c, 81 Slaughter – Ex-Mt, 92 Hodges – Ex, 93 Rizzuto/Martin – Ex-Mt, 97 Mathews – Nr-Mt, 99 Spahn – VG-Ex, 101 Schoendienst – Ex-Mt, 114 Feller – PSA 6 o/c, 117 Snider – VG, 118 Martin – Ex-Mt, 121 Berra – PSA 6, 143 Lopez – Ex-Mt, 146 Wynn – VG, 153 Ford – PSA 5 and 160 – Ex.
1953 Bowman Baseball Color Complete Set, Mantle (PSA 4) and Keys Slabbed (160)
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