The 1953 Bowman football set might be one of the most unappreciated vintage sets ever made. Unappreciated at least in the eyes of those who haven’t tried to put one together. Those who have - or are - know full well how difficult it is to find cards from this set in respectable grades. From awful centering to scuffing to natural corner wear that comes with a set that’s approaching its 60 th birthday, ’53 Bowman cards yield very few high grade examples. Would you believe less than 19% of all of the cards ever examined by PSA have been graded 8 (NM/MT)? Keep in mind that most collectors have already examined their cards before sending them in so as not to waste their money on low grades. That’s why we consider ourselves very fortunate to have three dozen of them in this week’s eBay auctions! These graded cards include some short prints and stars. There’s a beautiful PSA 7 Elroy Hirsch, a nice Dante Lavelli in the same grade and a short print of Johnny Olzewski, also near mint. From a design standpoint, the 1953 Bowman football set is pretty attractive with the player’s name inside a big football. The large pictures really stand out, as they do on the ’52 Bowman set. Gifford, Van Brocklin, Rote… many of the famous NFL names of the 1950s are available in our listings… but it’s those tough short prints that have driven collectors crazy and we have several up for bid. Did you know who quarterbacked the Packers in the days before Bart Starr? That would be Tobin Rote, a pretty fair passer in his own right. We have a stunningly well-centered PSA 6 that would fit into any nice collection—and it has only one bid as of this writing ($24.99). We’re not certain why the number of ’53 Bowman cards in the marketplace is so small. It’s reflected in PSA’s report, however and someday soon collectors of old football cards are going to realize how very scarce these cards are and the prices will adjust accordingly. For now, you can knock a nice group off of your want list in one fell swoop.
