1954 Bowman - Oversized Works of Art

Until recently, I had virtually ignored the 1954 Bowman set when it came to my vintage collection.  I think maybe it stemmed from the fact that the '50 and '52 sets were the ones I had a couple of cards from as a kid, so I tended to gravitate towards those releases.  In any event, over the past couple of months I was amazed to discover just how cheaply I could acquire '54 Bowman cards on COMC.

These cards really are small works of art.  Like quite a few '50s sets, they're larger than your average modern day trading card at 2 1/2" by 3 3/4".  The design is very simple, focusing largely on the player portrait with the exception of the small colored box containing the facsimile signature.  The illustrated/painted style of the player pictures, combined with the larger card size, really makes these look impressive in hand.

As I said in the opening, I was astounded by how cheap I could get most of these for.  Not one card in this post even topped the $4 mark, and 9 out of the 12 were less than $2.50!

I'm not nearly as big a fan of the backs as I am the fronts, but oh well.  The bat and ball player name and card number is kinda cool, other than that they're frankly a little boring.

How about $1.50 for Hoot Evers sitting on the dugout steps?  Sold!  At this point I'll shut up and let you simply enjoy the scans...

Jim Piersall here was the most expensive of this dozen, ringing in at $3.99.  All twelve cards from this post came to a grand total of $26.78, just a few bucks more than a blaster would set you back at Target.  That averages out to a paltry $2.23 per card!

I don't think I'll likely ever finish off this team set, since it includes the infamous Ted Williams that was replaced and pulled from printing, and is nearly impossible to find for a reasonable price.  Nonetheless, this was a huge bump in my vintage Sox collection, and quite possibly the most rewarding $25 I've ever spent on cardboard...