Broke a Set: 1953 Bowman Black & White

We recently broke a set of this classic baseball card offering from Bowman...

# 28 Hoyt Wilhelm - 1953 Bowman B&W

Perhaps the beauty of this set can be attributed to its sheer simplicity.  The 1953 Bowman Black & White baseball cards feature the most basic design of all vintage cards. There is only one series and only one possible variation in the entire set.
The 1953 Bowman Black & White cards are generally more difficult to find than their color counterpart and therefore are slightly more expensive on a card by card basis (an entire 1953 Bowman Color set is more expensive than the '53 Bowman B&W because there are so many more cards in that set).

Dean's Cards just broke an Excellent/Mint set of 1953 Bowman Black and White Baseball Cards and added them to inventory.  As with all of our vintage complete sets, the grading is extremely consistent.  This means that we now have a card in Excellent/Mint for just about every number!

Featured players in this set include: Mize, Stengel, Lemon, Wilhelm, Bridges, Harris, Bell, Sain, and Roe. 

If you like the 1953 Bowman Black & White Baseball card set, check out the 1953 Bowman Color Baseball Set.  We also have 1953 Bowman Black and White Reprints, Reprint Complete Sets, and other various vintage Bowman offerings.

1953 Bowman Baseball Card set

1953 Bowman Color Wax Wrapper

The 1953 Bowman Baseball Card set was Bowman Gum’s answer to Topps Giant Sized cards from 1952.  The 1953 Bowman Baseball Cards, with their beautiful color images are my personal favorite.  No names, captions or team logos – just great pictures.  1953 Bowman cards were a great leap ahead in the evolution of baseball cards and demonstrated the result of a competitive marketplace.

The 1953 Bowman Baseball Cards feature the multi-player cards and the first action shot - #33 Pee Wee Reese.  The Musial card is his last card until 1958.  The notable missing stars are Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, who were under contract to Topps, and Ted Williams, who was flying jets in Korea.

There were 160 cards in the 1953 Bowman set and rumor has it that the company spent too much money producing the cards.  In response, the last 64 cards were issued in the form of the 1953 Bowman Black & White Baseball Card set.  Because of the lack of stars and color, the Black & White set is the far less popular of the two sets.

The 1953 Bowman baseball card set was the most innovative card of it's day.  The photography is beautiful and so well staged.  The pictures seem to fit the players' persona.  Examples include: #9 Rizzuto bunting, #81 Country Slaughter leaning on his bats, #32 Musial in the dugout, #59 the graceful swing of the Mick, #121 Berra with his glove and mask, #62 the Muscles of Big Klu, and the multi-player shots #93 of Martin & Rizzuto and #44 Berra, Bauer & Mantle.

Also unique about these cards is that you do not see the images used in other years, as was the case of many of the Topps Cards of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  This is my favorite set of all-time.  Please vote for your favorite card and let us know what you think.

In addition to the original cards, both the 1953 Bowman Baseball Card Reprint set and 1953 Bowman Black & White Baseball Card Reprint set are available online at Dean’s Cards.