State of the Bowman Redbird Collection

We owe Bowman a great debt as card collectors-Bowman pioneered how sports cards were made, distributed, and collected. I love the vintage Bowman cards, but so do many other folks. This is the Long March of our collecting goals. Picking up a few cards every year until we complete each Redbird team set. So how are we doing? Ah, so-so.

The inaugural 1948 Bowman team set is a hella of difficult one to complete. We have zero of the four Redbirds. These are big hitters, no pun intended-Enos Slaughter
Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, and the most affordable of them all-Marty Marion. There is no challenger to the key card here-Stan the Man’s rookie card-a copy in excellent will be at least $600, at least.

We go from the black and white 1948 Bowman to the colorized 1949 Bowman.  Bowman left the players head shot as a photo and colorized their uniforms and hats. There are 12 Redbirds in the 1949 set and several variations around paper color and script or no script names. Again the Stan the Man is the key card missing from our collection. It is easier to show the 2 of the 3 cards of the 1949 set we have-Red Munger (white back), and Ron Northey.

The 1950 Bowman set remains small and instead of straight up portraits, we have a mix of action and portraits. These are essentially painted copies of photos. Cards are now longer/wider depending on the player orientation. Sixteen Redbirds were included in the set and we have 8. The key card missing is Red Schoendienst.

The 1951 Bowman set is the last before Topps really comes onto the scene in 1952. Again paintings based on photos-22 Cardinals were included which is a significant increase. We have 12 in our collection. Keys cards needed are Enos Slaughter, Joe Garagiola, and four challenging high-numbers.

In 1952 Bowman is often considered the forgotten set, as it is between the classic 1951 and 1953 Bowman issues and the 1952 Topps. Fourteen Redbirds appear in this “lost issue”. Bowman pretty well stuck the formula from the previous year’s set. We are 3/4s there with 8 Cardinals in our collection.

We have been no-hit when it comes to the iconic 1953 Bowman issue. With both black and white and color photographs it is very-very popular and we haven’t picked up a single of the 3 black and white Cardinals or any of the 10 color photo Bowmans. Key card missing is the color Stan Musial.

We are doing a bit better with the fourteen 1954 Bowman Cardinals. As we have completed this team set! Though we need three upgrades and one variation, Solly Hemus, to be done done. This is an interesting set as the size increased to that of the 1952 Topps and Bowman reverted to players being depicted by paintings.

The final “Bowman” set was issued in 1955-this set was issued AFTER Topps bought them out, so in reality this is a Topps issue. We have all 15 Cardinals and just need to upgrade the Red Schoendiest. Back to real photos but with faux wood grain TV borders which though not mine are favorites of collectors.

Great news is we are over the half way point for knocking out the vintage Bowman Redbirds. I have been trying to add a few every year, and at this pace I will be done when I am 75!

Stats-
Bowman Cardinals 110
Bowman Cardinals in collection 60
Bowman needed 50