1948 Bowman Baseball Cards
Bowman Gum Company first major card set.
Card Size: 2-1/16″ x 2-1/2″
– 48 Cards –
The 1948 Bowman Baseball cards feature black and white photographs, and 48 of the top players in the MLB. The card stock on the ’48 Bowman cards are a little thin because of the short supply during the late 1940’s. Bowman also printed the set on 36 card sheets. Bowman wanted to add some cards to the set late in the printing stage. So they stopped printing 12 cards in order to produce cards #37-48.
It is believed that these 12 cards are the 1948 Bowman Baseball short print cards. Be sure to check to see what they sell for on eBay, and note any price difference between the non-short print cards:
1948 Bowman Baseball Short Prints
7 Pete Reiser
8 Phil Rizzuto
13 Willard Marshall
16 Jack Lohrke
20 Buddy Kerr
22 Floyd Bevens
24 Dutch Leonard
26 Frank Shea
28 Emil Verban
29 Joe Page
30 Whitey Lockman
34 Sheldon Jones
1948 Bowman Rookie Cards
With 1948 Bowman being the first major card set to be released since the 1941 Play Ball series, some key rookie cards of that era appear in the set. Although finding any 1948 Bowman Baseball rookie cards with high grades (6,7,8,9 or 10) proves to be very difficult because of the poor quality card stock and the scarcity of the set. Take a look at the top RC cards in ’48 Bowman and be sure to check the link to see if any are on eBay.
#5 Bob Feller RC
#6 Yogi Berra RC
#8 Phil Rizzuto SP RC
#18 Warren Spahn RC
#36 Stan Musial RC
1948 Bowman Complete Set – Price Information
Recently, a complete set of 1948 Bowman Baseball cards were being sold on eBay. The seller had this to say about his set:
“My Great Uncle worked at Bowman in the 1940’s and he would bring cards home from work to give to my Father. My Father was a stamp collector at the time and handled them as if they were stamps. They have been stored away all these years and have seen very little light of day over the years. He took them out of storage in the 1990’s to show me and at that time I was collecting cards so I put them in plastic card protectors for him. The protectors are not sealed and they can be easily removed. I personally think that this set is in Mint condition but I’m not a professional card grader so I would grade this set in Near Mint to Mint condition to be on the safe side.”
Here are the stats on the auction:
Original 1948 Bowman Complete 48 Card Baseball Card Set
Final Price: $4,601.00
Bids: 56
Ended: April 4, 2010
1948 Bowman Baseball – Complete Checklist –
#1 Bob Elliott RC
#2 Ewell Blackwell RC
#3 Ralph Kiner RC
#4 Johnny Mize RC
#5 Bob Feller RC
#6 Yogi Berra RC
#7 Pete Reiser SP RC
#8 Phil Rizzuto SP RC
#9 Walker Cooper RC
#10 Buddy Rosar RC
#11 Johnny Lindell RC
#12 Johnny Sain RC
#13 Willard Marshall SP RC
#14 Allie Reynolds RC
#15 Eddie Joost
#16 Jack Lohrke SP RC
#17 Enos Slaughter RC
#18 Warren Spahn RC
#19 Tommy Henrich
#20 Buddy Kerr SP RC
#21 Ferris Fain RC
#22 Floyd Bevens SP RC
#23 Larry Jansen RC
#24 Dutch Leonard SP
#25 Barney McCosky
#26 Frank Shea SP RC
#27 Sid Gordon RC
#28 Emil Verban SP RC
#29 Joe Page SP RC
#30 Whitey Lockman SP RC
#31 Bill McCahan RC
#32 Bill Rigney RC
#33 Bill Johnson RC
#34 Sheldon Jones SP RC
#35 Snuffy Stirnweiss RC
#36 Stan Musial RC
#37 Clint Hartung RC
#38 Red Schoendienst RC
#39 Augie Galan RC
#40 Marty Marion RC
#41 Rex Barney RC
#42 Ray Poat RC
#43 Bruce Edwards RC
#44 Johnny Wyrostek RC
#45 Hank Sauer RC
#46 Herman Wehmeier RC
#47 Bobby Thomson RC
#48 Dave Koslo RC
