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Willie Mays Rookie Card Highlights Purchase of 1951 Bowman Cards

Willie Mays, Ted Williams, and Nellie Fox From Childhood Collection

January 06, 2025

A 1951 Bowman Willie Mays rookie card highlights this small collection with big names! Proudly purchased by Just Collect, a few legendary names from the Baseball Hall of Fame are in this vintage card collection held onto for decades. Main Photo Mays

THE COLLECTION

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Jeff collected cards like we all did. While Jeff's collection of cards came mostly from the 1970's, his dad collected cards from the 1950's. Jeff found his dad's cards and while the amount may be small, the names are large in stature!

1951 Bowman baseball cards measure 2-1/16" x 3-1/8" making them a little smaller than the standard card size you see today of 2.5" x 3.5". Each card from this set features a stunning painted rendition from a press image of each player. Jeff's dad was apparently a Phillies fan while residing in PA as there are six different Phillies cards among the 18 total 1951 Bowman cards in the collection. Though Jeff only had 18 cards from the 1951 Bowman set, he had a few of the top cards!

In the slide show below, the first image you see has:

Willie Mays rookie card
Ted Williams
Nelson "Nellie" Fox

Three Hall of Famers!

Mays is arguably the greatest five-tool player ever to play the game. Mays could hit for average (.301 career average), hit for power (660 career home runs), run (four-time leader in stolen bases), and field with a great arm (12 career Gold Glove awards). The 24-time All-Star won the World Series and two MVP awards on his way to Cooperstown.

Ted Williams was so good at the plate, he won TWO Triple Crowns. When a player leads the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs, they win the "triple crown" of hitting. The Triple Crown feat has only been reached 18 times since 1878, and only one player (Miguel Cabrera in 2012) has accomplished this in the last 60 years. Teddy Ballgame did it twice! Williams is also the last player to hit over .400 in a season, finishing the 1941 year with a .406 average.

Nellie Fox was a regular on the All-Star team, being elected 15 times in his 19-year career! Fox on the MVP award in 1959 and has 3 Gold Glove awards under his belt. Fox is the second Chicago White Sox ever to have his number retired.

In the second image below, you can see the remainder of the 1951 Bowman baseball cards including each of those coveted Phillies Jeff's dad loved.

APPRAISAL AND PURCHASE

Jeff initially reached out to other companies for an appraisal, but chose Just Collect to sell his collection to after finding us via Google search. We always offer a and have the experience and expertise to purchase vintage collections. The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where we are happy to help you! Having purchased many 1951 Bowman baseball cards like our Uni-Ball Pen Collection (the cards were stored in an old pen box!), Jeff knew Just Collect is the company to treat his collection with the care it deserves.

After submitting photos in our easy-to-use appraisal form, Jeff opted to SHIP his collection in for a full, free appraisal. We offer many ways to evaluate your collection. If you're not able to meet in-person at our store here in New Jersey, we offer to meet at card shows and conventions, or we can travel for large collections. We offered Jeff our two-day, fully-insured FedEx account to ship his cards.

The 1951 Bowman cards that belonged to Jeff's dad, and his own childhood collection from the 1970's arrived safely and securely here at Just Collect where we reviewed each card. The 1970's cards were well loved and what we like to call "collector's grade." Jeff again did what we all did as kids - enjoyed the cards. Maybe a few cards were put into bike spokes. We purchased each of the cards, but the 1951 Bowman cards are what really caught our attention!

We made Jeff a fair offer that he accepted, and then we mailed him a company check. When you choose to sell your collection to Just Collect, we pay you how you want to be paid whether that is cash, company check, or wire transfer. Thank you, Jeff, for choosing Just Collect to purchase yours and your dad's cards! We appreciate your Google Review, too!

WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.

We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:

We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.

Travel to Us

If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.

Come to convention

We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.

Meet in-person

If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.

Meet in New York City

If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.

SHIP your collection

If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.

OUR BUYING PHILOSOPHY

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.