1911 Close Candy E94 Overprinted Backs

Examples of some of the possible overprints available on the backs of the 1911 George Close Candy E94 baseball cards. 

* Image was available for several sources on the internet, and was taken from the net54 forum.

Uncatalogued 'Gay Cowboy' Card Identified

By Jon Hanley

Photo by Dean's Cards

Although summer is drawing to a close, the discovery of another one-hundred-year-old gem keeps excitement in the air at Dean’s Cards. Only several weeks after discovering a rare Ty Cobb promo card, one of three in known existence, another item in our possession featuring the likes of the once famous actor J. Warren Kerrigan has proven even more scarce. According to a feed on Net54’s Vintage Non-Sports Forum, the card, identified as a 1914 T222 Fatima, was not thought to have existed until less than one year ago, when the first of its kind surfaced and sold on eBay. This discovery here at Dean’s Cards is the first since then, making ours only the second known example of this uncataloged relic.

Better yet, this item’s background does not fail to live up to its rarity, as the stories behind Kerrigan, whose immense fame was followed by a sharp decline, and the 1914 T222 Fatima set combine to pack a fascinating punch.

The silent film star you have never heard of grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, splitting his time between hunting and reading Shakespeare. Although making his start on Broadway, Kerrigan did not obtain fame until appearing on the big screen and quickly experienced immense fandom. By 1910, he was believed to have over 40 million followers, and a few years later the film magazine, Photoplay, wrote an article titled, The Great God Kerrigan, (see page 41) which discussed the star’s preference of the great outdoors over the Hollywood party scene as well as his love for his mother. When asked why the twenty-six-year-old, widely known for his good looks, was not yet married, Kerrigan was quoting as saying, “I don’t think I would ever be very likely to find a woman as good as my mother.” Years later it became known that the mama’s boy was in fact homosexual.

Photo by Old Magazine Articles

Despite this quick rise to stardom, one poorly thought out statement brought everything crashing down in May of 1917, only one month after the United States formally entered World War I. Kerrigan, upon being asked whether or not he would enlist in the military, stated he would not serve since the army should first take, “the great mass of men who aren’t good for anything else.” The American public proved to be unforgivable in a time of war, and the golden boy of the silent film era was immediately ostracized. Although he eventually managed to star in a few popular films in the 1920’s, Kerrigan never again experienced his former popularity and lived out a private life with his mother and partner. If the usually charming Kerrigan had refrained from making this statement more of us would probably know his name today.

Not to be outdone, the circumstances of Kerrigan’s inclusion in the 1914 Fatima set are compelling in their own right, as T222 is mostly known as a baseball card set. The sixty-three card set, now sixty-four with the addition of Kerrigan, features fifty-two baseball players, with the remainder of the seemingly misplaced cards depicting other athletes and movie stars. The set is considered complete amongst most collectors with only the fifty-two ball players, leading many to wonder why twelve random celebrities appeared alongside the likes of baseball legends Walter Johnson and Rube Marquard.

Photo by Dean's Cards

The answer to that question begins with the Liggett & Meyers Tobacco Company of Huntington, West Virginia, now a subsidiary of Liggett Vector Brands, one of the largest tobacco companies in the United States, and their decision to print glossy paper cards for distribution with packs of their Fatima Blend Cigarettes. The 1914 set was a follow up to the company's apparent experimentation with baseball cards in 1913, as three different sets of baseball photographs were included with their tobacco products over the course of the year. Of these three products, two featured team pictures of professional clubs, the 1913 Fatima Team Cards (T200) and the Fatima Premiums. However, the 1913-1915 Fatima Posters depicted a single player, and seem to have been the most popular product, as they continued to print them for two more years. This may have urged Liggett & Meyers to combine the convenient size of the team cards with the depiction of a single player, resulting in the birth of the 2 ½” x 4 ½” images in 1914. The company apparently felt a need to step up their game to an even greater level, as the decision was made to include other athletes and movie stars in addition to baseball players. The back of each card describes the set as a “Collection of 100 photographs of famous Baseball players, American Athletic champions and Photoplay stars”. You can see the checklists for all of the Fatima sets on pages 166-67 in the 6th edition of the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards.

Although Liggett & Meyers planned to print one hundred different cards, the West Virginian tobacco boys must have made a last minute realization that baseball cards were the most popular product, as it appears they ordered a halt to the production of the non-baseball cards before the set was completed. According to The Cardboard Connection, there is a reason to believe more photoplay star photographs from 1914 Fatima will emerge in the years to follow. Regardless, we’re lucky the production of these photographs was terminated just late enough for a few Kerrigan cards to slip their way into cigarette packs. Who knows, there are probably a few more out there waiting to be discovered.

Hidden Gem: Rare Ty Cobb E95 Promo Card Discovered

By Jon Hanley

Last week an exciting discovery was made deep in the dungeons of Dean’s Cards. As Dean’s son, home from college, I was given the task of researching this unique Ty Cobb card, a relic previously undiscovered. When Dean first acquired this artifact over ten years ago, he knew it was old and most likely rare, but remained unsure what he had on his hands. After several experts admitted they had never seen anything like this item before, Dean hesitated from releasing it to the market. As a result, this cardboard depiction of the 4,000 hit club’s founding member sat on a shelf and waited ten more years until its mysteries were finally unraveled.

Photo by Dean's Cards

According to our research, Philadelphia Caramel expert Erik Varon recently discovered a nexus between this lookalike E95 Ty Cobb card and a Philadelphia Caramel Company advertisement issued circa 1910. Varon concluded this card was cut from an ad similar to the one pictured below, which was probably distributed to convince potential vendors to carry the company’s soon to be released baseball cards. This would make this item one of the earliest known promo cards. These 1909 Philadelphia Caramel cards were later designated by collectors as E95’s, and feature twenty-five stars of the day including Cobb. While our find may appear almost identical to the E95 Cobb card, further inspection will reveal that the lettering was enlarged and moved from the bottom margin to above Cobb’s head, probably to make the image more suitable for a larger print.

Photo by Erik Varon

The most peculiar part of this card is the jumble of wordage featured on the backside, the characteristic which enables the item’s identification. While the front of the ad featured Cobb, the backside described the company’s caramel and other products with phrases like “jelly confections” and “soft cream centered chocolates”. These words match up almost perfectly with the Philadelphia Caramel Co. advertisement mentioned above.

Photo by Net54

As learned from an online forum, the ad included a second promo card beside Cobb featuring prizefighter Jim Jeffries, who came out of retirement to challenge the 1908 Heavyweight Champion, Jack Johnson. The Philadelphia Caramel Co. simultaneously released a set of boxing cards, later designated as E79’s, since baseball and boxing were the two most popular sports in the United States at the time. When the backsides of the two cards are placed side-by-side they fit together like pieces in a puzzle.

Unfortunately, the full advertisement will likely never be found, as these cut-outs are extremely rare on their own. To our knowledge, this Cobb card is only one of three in acknowledged existence, making it the rarest item ever stumbled upon at Dean’s Cards.

One of these sold through Heritage Auctions in 2009, with the item description reading, “Until the full piece is discovered, this lone remnant will remain as our inspiration to keep searching those dusty attics and flea markets looking for long forgotten treasures.”

Our find is not only another remnant of this lost treasure but is in much better condition than the item sold eight years ago. Dean’s Cards will most likely auction this rare piece of history on eBay later in the month, but for the time being, we remain too caught up in the excitement of discovery to consider a starting price.

We hope our discovery will encourage others to join this Crusade to uncover further artifacts of America’s greatest pastime. After all, discoveries like this are one of the many pleasures of our favorite hobby and yet another reason why grown men still play with baseball cards. 

If you would like to read more about the Philadelphia Caramel Company, check out Erik Varon's new book, Jakob's Story and the American Dream, recently released on Amazon.

Recent Collection Purchased From 1958: The Topps All-Star Collection

1958 Topps Baseball

At Dean's Cards, we buy hundreds of vintage baseball card collections every year.  These collections range from cards acquired during childhood (that have most likely been sitting in a closet or attic for years), to collectors selling their baseball card sets and cards that have taken years to acquire through shows, card shops, or a websites like DeansCards.com.

1958 Topps #150 Mickey Mantle

Everyone has their own reasons for selling their vintage cards. One of the reasons could be a collector wanting to sell their duplicate cards.  We've had many cases of customers and clients sending us their dupes in order to maybe focus on another part of their collection, or simply clean out the attic or closet a little bit.  Here's an example of a customer that sent us his extra 1958 Topps Baseball cards for us to purchase.


The "bulk" of the collection

It's no understatement to say that we just bought
box upon box of 1958 Topps cards.

For those who may not be experts, the 1958 Topps Baseball Card Set is easier to build than some other sets released around the same time.  1957 Topps Baseball has an expensive mid-series, that can make the set a bit pricier to complete. 1959 Topps Baseball has a high number series that's slightly more expensive, and also has almost 80 more cards than its 1958 counterpart.  This makes 1958 Topps Baseball an appealing set to build for those new to collecting Topps cards from the 1950s.

This set is also fun to build in the sense that it has so many star cards of those beloved Hall-of-Famer's of the 1950s.  This is due to the Sport Magazine All-Star subset, as well as multi-player cards depicting various players from around the league.  These cards are often themed and have titles such as, "Slugger's Supreme," "Birdie's Young Sluggers," "World Series Batting Foes" and "Rival Fence Busters."

Altogether, we purchased over 3,000 cards from 1958 Topps.  Many of these were duplicates.  We LOVE buying collections like this.  If you aren't familiar with how our "Everyday Discounts" work, click here.  The more cards we have in inventory and the more cards you buy, the more you save!  Nobody else has the selection of 1958 Topps as Deanscards.com.

An All-Star Celebration

1958 Topps #487 Mickey Mantle AS
was triple printed, making it one of the least expensive
Mickey Mantle cards to purchase from the 1950s.

There was an exceptional amount of All-Star cards included in this collection.  Even though they were part of the all-stars subset, not all of these guys were big-time Hall of Famers.  Herb Score wasn't even an All-Star in 1957.  He actually was hurt for most of the season after being hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald.  A promising pitching career, for all intensive purposes, was cut short as Score would never return to form after the injury.  Virtually every other player depicted in this subset would go on to have productive careers in the big leagues.

All in all, we bought:

41 - #476 Stan Musial AS
27 - #477 Bill Skowron AS
17 - #478 Johnny Temple AS
24 - #479 Nellie Fox AS
24 - #480 Eddie Mathews AS
22 - #481 Frank Malzone AS
32 - #482 Ernie Banks AS
31 - #483 Luis Aparicio AS
19 - #484 Frank Robinson AS
10 - #485 Ted Williams AS
19 - #486 Willie Mays AS
35 - #487 Mickey Mantle AS
31 - #488 Hank Aaron AS
25 - #489 Jackie Jensen AS
27 - #490 Ed Bailey AS
33 - #491 Sherm Lollar AS
17 - #492 Bob Friend AS
21 - #493 Bob Turley AS
19 - #494 Warren Spahn AS
17 - #495 Herb Score AS

If you're interested in selling your collection to us, please read our seller testimonials. On there you will find dozens upon dozens of satisfied clients. For more information on selling a vintage baseball collection in general, please click here. We look forward to hearing from you!

By Dean Hanley

 Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

Recent Collection Purchased From 1909-1913: M101-2 Sporting News Supplements

1909-13 M101-2 Sporting News Baseball Supplements

At Dean's Cards, we buy hundreds of vintage baseball card collections through the mail each and every year. These collections range from cards acquired during childhood (that have most likely been sitting in a closet or attic for years), to collectors selling their baseball card sets and cards that have taken years to acquire through shows, card shops, or a website like DeansCards.com. This is another story of a recent collection we were able to purchase.

M101-2 Sporting News Ty Cobb

Typically, as we have stated before, collections mailed to us (and we get a lot! Hundreds a year.), are usually in the form of those little cardboard rectangles that Goudey, Topps, Fleer, Bowman and other gum companies made so popular. When you get into the late 1940's, to the beginning of Topps in the early 50's, and to the present; baseball cards (mostly around the 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" variety) are the standard.

That's not the case for the collection we are featuring in this post. They're not really cards, although they feature baseball players. These poster-sized supplements are more like something that you'd hang on your wall rather than put in your bike spokes.


So what are these things anyways?

The 1909 M101-2 Supplements were issued with the Sporting News
sporadically throughout 1909-1913.

The 1909-13 M101-2 Sporting News Baseball Supplements set includes 100 poster-sized supplements measuring 7 1/2" x 10".  The front of the Sporting News supplements include a sepia photo of the players with date and player name.  Backs of the M101-2 supplements are blank.

The supplements were issued with Sporting News sporadically throughout 1909 to 1913. I say sporadic, because they weren't included with every Sporting News magazine, and there are large gaps in time where there was no supplement included at all.

The most interesting thing about this set might be the photography used to depict the baseball players. You rarely will see better photos taken during this time period of guys like Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, or Walter Johnson.

What makes it even better is that there are several supplements which have multiple players featured on the front. These player combinations range from players talking to shaking hands. The most valuable of these multi-player photos has to be the March 17, 1910 Ty Cobb / Honus Wagner.

The recent M101-2 Sporting News Supplements Find

This Sporting News Supplements set is loaded with photos of Hall-of-Famers.

Recently we had a rather large collection of these supplements sent to us through the mail that we were able to purchase. Most of these posters were in low to mid-grade condition, but they all had great eye appeal. These things are just plain neat, and the photography is beautiful. If you want something that captures a moment in baseball history to place around the man cave, these are close to perfect.

Included in the collection were supplements depicting Hall-of-Famers like: Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Eddie Plank, Walter Johnson and a famous non-HOFer - Shoeless Joe Jackson.

So head over to DeansCards.com and check these unique items out!

By Dean Hanley


 Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

Recent Collection Purchased From 1914: B18 Blankets

1914 B18 Baseball Blankets

At Dean's Cards, we buy hundreds of vintage baseball card collections every year. These collections range from cards acquired during childhood (that have most likely been sitting in a closet or attic for years), to collectors selling their baseball card sets and cards that have taken years to acquire through shows, card shops, or a website like DeansCards.com. This is another story of a recent collection we were able to purchase.

Baseball collectibles can take on many forms. Generally, when we get a collection mailed to us (and we get a lot! Hundreds a year.), they are those little cardboard rectangles that Goudey, Topps, Fleer, Bowman and other gum companies made so popular. This is overwelmingly the case, maybe even 95% of the time.

1914 B18 Blanket Depicting Ty Cobb

That's not to say baseball "cards" are the only things we buy and sell. But when you get into the late 1940's, to the beginning of Topps in the early 50's, and to the present; baseball cards (mostly around the 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" variety) are the standard.

That wasn't always the case. The sport of baseball has been around since the mid to late 1800's. From that time until around the World War II era, there would be a lot of different companies using the stars of the baseball diamond to market their product.

So what are these things anyways?

The 1914 B18 Baseball Blankets are anything but conventional when it comes to your average baseball card collecting. In fact, you may find these in a closet, attic, barn, etc. and not have a clue what they are or if they have any value. For this reason I'm sure that a lot of them have just been discarded and maybe thrown away over the years.

1914 B18 Blanket of Casey Stengel

There are some instances in which these blanket squares have been quilted into bigger blankets. And it's amazing how well some of these little felt squares have held up after 100 years.

Overall, the 1914 B18 Baseball Blankets set consists of 91 cloth squares, 56 of which have at least two color variations.  The blankets are organized by baseball team and then alphabetically by player's last name.   They were obtained as a promotion given by various cigarette companies.

A look at the 13 B18 Shoeless Joe Jackson Blankets
that we purchased as part of a larger collection.

The Shoeless Joe Jackson B18 Find

Okay, so many of you might not get overly excited about a bunch of 5 1/4" felt squares, but we recently got a collection sent to us that included something special in it. Thirteen, count them 13, Shoeless Joe Jackson blankets were included with this collection! They can all be found for sale here.

Check out our inventory of B18 Blankets at Dean's Cards

If you're interested in selling your collection to us, please read our seller testimonials. On there you will find dozens upon dozens of satisfied clients. For more information on selling a vintage baseball collection in general, please click here. We look forward to hearing from you!

By Dean Hanley

 Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

Recent Collection Purchased From 1956: Davy Crockett and Topps Baseball Cards

1956 Topps Baseball and 1956 Topps Davy Crockett

At Dean's Cards, we buy hundreds of vintage baseball card collections every year. These collections range from cards acquired during childhood (that have most likely been sitting in a closet or attic for years), to collectors selling their baseball card sets and cards that have taken years to acquire through shows, card shops, or a website like DeansCards.com.

Everyone has their own reasons for selling their vintage cards, and one of the most common reasons for selling cards is due to down-sizing.  Over the past few months, we have bought over 5000 cards from a gentlemen who is doing just that.  And as you will come to find, this particular collector had an affinity for all things 1956 Topps!

1956 Topps Davy Crocket Orange Back Sets

1956 Topps Davy Crockett #1 King of the Wild Frontier

He started off by mailing in 13 Davy Crockett Orange Sets (with duplicates), and it is the most Davy Crockett cards we’ve ever seen in one place!

This set really is an interesting release by Topps. While today we mainly see action figures of our favorite movie characters and super heroes, back in the 1950's, trading cards were the equivalent. Thus when the Walt Disney film "Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier" premiered in 1955, naturally the movie appeared in playing card form as well. 

#80 Bowie's Last Stand

The 1956 Topps Davy Crockett trading card set originally consisted of 80 cards that could be purchased in 1-cent and 5-cent wax packs each with a stick of bubble gum. The cards were numbered and when all 80 orange-backed cards were put in sequence, the entire movie was in the palm of one's hand.

If you're interested in buying a 1956 Davy Crockett Orange Back Complete Set (or two!) we know just the place. Dean's Cards has over 2,000 singles in stock as well, with images of all cards. Relive the movie and all of Davy's exploits via this vibrant 80-card issue.

For more information visit our 1956 Topps Davy Crockett Orange Back Cards Category page.

1956 Topps Baseball Card Sets

After we purchased the Davy Crockett cards, we moved onto his vintage baseball card collection.  He mailed in 3 pretty nice 1956 Topps complete sets, which we paid a pretty penny for (But it was worth it!).  

We have a number of different 1956 Topps Sets for sale.

It's always great when we get we can buy multiple mid and high grade sets such as these three. All the cards get the same treatment: they are graded, scanned, sleeved (with QR code for online viewing of the scans), and placed into a set by our in-house software. The result of this is nothing short of the most consistent set for the best value of any on the market.

1956 Topps Baseball Card Singles

What we didn’t know when we bought the three 1956 Topps Baseball sets, was just how many 1956 Topps cards the gentlemen had left to sell!  This past week, we received a shipment of nearly 4,000 1956 Topps Baseball Singles. 

It was unreal, we had never seen a collection of 1956 Topps like this. At the time we had over 6,000 cards in our inventory for this set, and now we were going to be able to add four thousand more!  Not only was the sheer number of cards amazing, but there were also an equal number of stars and hall-of-famers included. We're talking: 29 #30 Jackie Robinson cards, 24 #31 Hank Aaron cards, 18 #5 Ted Williams cards, 18 #130 Willie Mays cards, 12 #33 Roberto Clemente cards, 14 #135 Mickey Mantle cards, and dozens upon dozens of team cards.

Stacks of 1956 Topps Stars and Hall-of-Famers

This is the largest collection of 1956 Topps cards that we’ve purchased in the last 13 years, and it could not have gone more smoothly (for the seller as well as us).  The gentlemen simply mailed in the cards in batches, and we would have an offer for him within 2 business days of receiving them.  After agreeing on a price, we ordered him a bank check, and he mailed in another batch.  We repeated this process several times and purchased his entire collection.

If you're interested in selling your collection to us, please read our seller testimonials. On there you will find dozens upon dozens of satisfied clients. For more information on selling a vintage baseball collection in general, please click here. We look forward to hearing from you!

By Dean Hanley

 Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

T207 Repint Complete Set

By Dean Hanley
Owner of Deanscards.com

The T207 set, commonly known as the brown background set, was originally manufactured by the tobacco industry giant, the American Tobacco Company, in 1912. The T207 baseball cards measure 1½” by 2-5/8”. Shortly after this set was printed, the American Tobacco Company would be dissolved due to the Sherman anti-trust legislation that broke the monopoly on tobacco.

The T207 baseball card set is a true hobby classic. The 200-card T207 set contains 13 players that are in Baseball’s Hall-of-Fame, including Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, Frank Chance, John McGraw, Smokey Joe Wood and Joe Tinker. Two interesting T207 cards are Eddie Cicotte and Buck Weaver, who were members of the 1919 White Sox and banned from the game for life.


 This set is unique to Dean’s cards. We created it ourselves. It took a total of two years to get the entire process done. This is the only official T207 Reprint Set out there. To do so, we created a new company called Dean’s Reprints and began securing the needed images.

 This is one of the most famous pre-war sets and it was never issued or offered in the form of a reprint set. Reprint Sets give collectors the opportunity to enjoy cards that they might not be able to collect in the original form.

 DeansCards.com sells quite a few reprint singles and complete sets every year. For that reason, I decided we should recreate and issue a T207 reprint set. Due to the quality of the century old cards, almost all of the T207 images needed to be retouched. Great care was given making sure that the reprint cards remained true to the original set.


The original T207 set includes eight possible backs containing the name of tobacco brands in which the original cards were enclosed. We included a variety of these backs in the reprint set including three cards containing the ultra-scarce “Red Cross” backs. We were careful to use those backs on
cards, whose originals have been discovered with a Red Cross back.

One of the most interesting features of the T207 baseball card set are the player biographies on the back of the cards. Each of these bios needed to be retyped. We were careful to stay true to the original fonts and leave the original century old misspelled words. We also made sure to give it an assigned number to help collectors keep track. To ensure it is indeed a REPRINT, we added REPRINT to the back of the cards. I hope that the hobby purists will forgive us for these minor changes.

To view/purchase the original cards please click here.

 Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

In Stock! 1962 Bubbles Inc Mars Attack Cards!

1962 Bubbles Inc. Mars Attack Cards

We have recently acquired a beautiful collection of 1962 Bubbles Inc. Mars Attacks cards. The grades on these cards range anywhere from Excellent to Near Mint.

Wally Wood and Bob Powell were hired to draw the sketches of the images while artist Norman Saunders ( Who also did the Civil War News and Flags of the World) brought the images to life with color.

The cards were distributed via vending machine, costing 5 cents for a pack of five. They initially sparked some controversy with parents because of their gory images and explicit themes. The violent depictions were not the norm for trading cards from that era.

This series is particularly hard to come by because many mothers at the time threw them away due to the graphic images they presented.

The first card, "The Invasion Begins" as well as the last card, which is a checklist, are the two most valuable cards in the set. These cards command a premium in higher grade.


We currently have these cards in stock and they are both graded by PSA. “ The invasion Begins” is a PSA 6 and the checklist grades a PSA 5.5. Those are highly achieved grades since many of the cards issued back then had centering problems

By Dean Hanley

 Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

The Bubble Gum Card War

“All in all, a very informative read”- J.D Amazon.com

The Bubble Gum Card War is the second book to be written by Dean Hanley. On average this book rates 4.5/5 stars on Amazon.com where it can be purchased in both paperback and kindle. 

 Sales are still popular, even after being around for nearly two years. This book best describes the sets (and cards) from Bowman and Topps for the years of 1948-55. If you are a collector and ever wondered how these companies came to be, then it is a must read. 

This book has received both Amazon reviews and blog writer reviews. Yadier Molina who is a baseball enthusiast wrote a review of the book. It can be found on his web page by clicking here.

There are a few categories on Amazon in which this book ranks. It is doing very well on the Kindle.

Kindle Rankings

• Sports Cards- Ranks #3
• Antique and Collectable Base Ball Cards- Ranks #2
  

Paper Back

• Sports Memorabilia and card antiques- Ranks #51
• Antique and collectable sports- Ranks #25
• Antique and Collectable Baseball Cards- Ranks #21

 The first book Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards was issued in 2011.  This book is filled with informative information about Pre-War cards and Sets.

It follows right behind The Bubble Gum Card War for the kindle rankings. This book is also available in paperback. 

By Dean Hanley

Dean's Cards offers a 100% Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee on all purchases. Just contact us within ten days of the purchase date and we will refund your money or, when possible, replace the cards.  Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog.  Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.

1950 Bowman Football Complete Set

By Dean Hanley
Owner and Founder of Dean's Cards

The 1950’s was the start of the Bowman and Topps Wars. During the 1950’s the number of teams and players would increase, therefore there would be more cards available then in previous sets.

The 1950 Bowman Football Complete Set contains 144 cards. This set is truly a classic and a treasure to have. Collectors like this set because it is quite the challenge to piece on together. There were not that many cards for this series produced. This set also contains no errors or short prints. When this series of cards was first introduced it was sold in nickel wax packs. Only on a real rare occasion can you find a wax pack for this series in today’s time.

The photos on these cards have one of four possible positions/poses. The card features either a close up, kicking pose, catching pose or the player running. When you flip the card over you can tell that Bowman still had not changed what the backs of the cards looked like. The back is on a very plain piece of cardboard paper with the players name in red. Below that, in black ink is a short bio with the position the player had at the time.
The key rookie cards in this set are
#5 Y.A Tittle,
#6 Lou Groza,
#9 Tony Canadeo,
#35 Joe Perry,
#45 Otto Graham,
and #52 Elroy Hirsch.



Dean's Cards offers a 100% Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee on all purchases. Just contact us within ten days of the purchase date and we will refund your money or, when possible, replace the cards. 

Dean Hanley, founder and owner of DeansCards.com, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject of vintage baseball cards, other sports and non-sports cards and has a regular column in the Sports Collectors Digest and publishes articles on his blog. 

Dean has also written two books on vintage sports cards: The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 and Before There Was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards. Both are available in eBook and paperback form.