Results of Year Four of The Great Bubble Gum Card War: 1954

by +Dean Hanley
By 1954, baseball card collecting continued to achieve new heights. A new magazine, Sports Illustrated, debuted in August of 1954. The first issue of SI featured an article about the Bubble Gum War between Topps and Bowman.

 The SI article details how the hobby of collecting cards had become the obsession of American boys. The first two issues of SI also featured Topps baseball cards. The cards were getting better each year and most kids were collecting the cards of both manufacturers, but as more players began to sign exclusive contracts the number of players appearing in both sets was steadily decreasing each year.

 Some historical perspective 

While the kids of the day were enjoying the selection of the beautiful new baseball cards available, Topps and Bowman were locked in a competitive death struggle. Topps and Bowman cards sat side-by-side on every local candy counter across America, each desperately trying to grab the attention of the boys that would appear every day after school with coins in hand.

Production costs were high for both Bowman and Topps because of the competitive environment. Since the Baseball Gum Card War had begun, Bowman was forced to make their cards bigger and better. The nickel packs now contained seven cards instead of five. Both companies were under pressure to sign the best players to contracts, then to out-design, produce, innovate and market the other in order to survive.

It had become clear to both companies that the gum card market would be much more profitable with only one company making cards. Unlike many industries, a monopoly was possible because the most important ingredient to the cards, the images of the professional athletes, could be signed to exclusive contracts that courts would uphold.

If a monopoly could be re-established by either company, kids would only have one type of baseball and football card to buy and that company would get all the sales. The winning company could steadily reduce design, production and marketing costs and increase the price of the product.

 Bowman bounces back from 1953

It had been three years since Topps had launched its surprise attack on the Philadelphia-based Bowman Gum Company, shaking up the entire card collecting hobby with its groundbreaking 1952 Topps baseball card set. It was the 1952 Topps Baseball card set that catapulted Topps into a lead over Bowman in the baseball card market, one that they would never relinquish. By 1954, Topps baseball card related gum sales had surpassed the one million dollar mark.

The good news for Bowman was that their revenues from baseball cards rebounded in 1954 to $602,000, which was exactly double the sales of 1953, but far less than their 1951 sales revenues, back in the days before Topps was a serious competitor. Bowman had also reduced production costs in 1954 by issuing a more cost effective set of cards.

As noted earlier, Bowman was also doing a better job of signing the star players of the day to exclusive contracts than Topps, but Bowman was still finishing second in sales. Second place is not a good position to finish, especially when it is a two team race.

Bowman as a company was still strong, but was definitely feeling the competitive pressure around it in the market. Sales of all Bowman products had declined from over $3 million in 1951 to just less than $2.5 million in 1954.

When Haelan Labs bought the Bowman Gum Co. in 1952, they ended up getting much more than they initially bargained for. In 1951, Bowman Gum was the leading bubble gum producer in a growing, profitable market niche, including the sports cards business that was well-protected by exclusive contracts. This was the company Haelan thought that they were buying, but when Topps issued its 1952 set, everything had changed. Bowman was now losing money and was locked in the fight of its life, with an aggressive and innovative competitor. Worse yet, baseball cards and bubble gum were an area market in which Haelan executives had little experience.

Warren Bowman had succeeded at one of the hardest decisions that any entrepreneur has to make. He had cashed out of the business that he built at just the right time.



This article is taken from Dean’s book “The Gum Card War and the Great Bowman & Topps Baseball Card Sets of 1948-1955”, which is now available for sale at Amazon.com.

Dean Hanley is an authority on vintage sports cards and has written numerous articles on the topic. Mr. Hanley is the founder DeansCards.com, and with well-over one million vintage cards in inventory, DeansCards.com is the largest seller of vintage cards on the web. Dean has also published “Before there was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards”, which is also available in eBook form at Amazon.com and has just released a T207 reprint set. For more information, please visit www.DeansCards.com

If you are looking to sell your cards we would be happy to hear from you. Please fill out our sell your collection form here and we will be in touch.

1954 Topps – Topps Gets Busy

This article was written by Dean Hanley and was published in the July 3, 2012 issue of Sports Collectors Digest.

While Bowman was still reeling from its expensive 1953 color venture, Topps was enjoying its newly discovered success in the competitive world of bubble gum baseball cards. Sy Berger refused to lose the initiative and was determined to further improve the Topps product offering.

While Sy Berger had contracted for artists to hand-draw the 1953 cards, he wanted a new and cutting edge design for the 1954 issue. He would borrow from the 1952 set and again use colorized photographs, although this time Berger wanted to include a black-and-white action shot that would lie across part of the colorized portrait. This concept proved to be a tough sell to both Topps executives and artist Woody Gelman, who all initially disliked the concept. Berger, who was never one to be easily discouraged, kept persisting and finally got his way. The result was the most attractive baseball card produced to date.

Years later, Sy Berger recalled, “I had advocated action photography for three or four years. They wouldn’t hear of it, and I had two big file cabinets full of action pictures. They did a survey and found out that the kids wanted action pictures. They came to me in December and said, ‘Where are we going to get color action pictures?’ – and I had them.”

Each of the 1954 Topps cards features a large color image of the player’s upper torso, which shares the remaining space with a smaller full-body black-and-white photo of the player in an action pose. Each card contains a large team logo at the top of the card and a facsimile autograph at the bottom of the card. Located next to the team logo at the top of the card is the player’s name, position, and team name. A bright, colorful background that extended all the way to the card’s top edge sets the design and makes the player’s image appear to jump off the card. The backs of the 1954 Topps cards are just as busy. Printed on the back is personal information, history, statistics and a colorful, eye-catching cartoon about the player.

The 1954 Topps baseball card set includes 250 vintage size cards, each measuring 3⅝” by 3¾”. The year is unique in that it’s a mixture of aging stars from the pre-war era of baseball as well as rookies that would be destined for the Hall-of-Fame. Topps had once again manufactured an exceptional set that would stand out amongst the Gum Cards War chaos of the 1950s.

A Great Rookie Card Class 

The 1954 Topps cards captured the new burst of talent that was beginning to transform the game of baseball. In 1954, Topps (or should we say Sy Berger) was insightful enough to secure the rights to print all the rookie cards of three bright and exciting players who would be perennial All-Stars for the next two decades and eventually be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame. These were: #94 Ernie Banks, #128 Hank Aaron, and #201 Al Kaline.

The 1954 Topps set also contains the rookie cards of #25 Harvey Kuenn – A.L. Rookie of the Year and #132 Tommy Lasorda – who would be enshrined as a manager. This impressive list of baseball giants would prove to have a great impact on the sport for years to come and Banks, Aaron, Kaline and Kuenn would go on to play in a combined total of 63 All-Star games! The 1954 Topps set also features the exclusive cards of Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Warren Spahn.

 “Teddy Ballgame” comes home from war

Topps and Bowman were still competing for the baseball card market as well as the player rights to produce the cards. By 1954, Bowman was pulling ahead in the number of players it had signed to exclusive contracts. Sy Berger, a Red Sox fan, had been desperate to sign Ted Williams, who was exclusive with Bowman.

Berger’s coup of 1954 was signing Williams to a five year contract. For the first time, Topps offered a player (Williams) more money than the standard contract in order to get him to appear on a Topps baseball card.

To help justify this cost, Topps featured Williams on both the first and last card in the set (#1 and #250). Bowman also printed a card of Williams without realizing that he had signed an exclusive contract with Topps. Bowman was forced to stop production of the #66 Ted Williams card, thus making it the most scarce and valuable card in the 1954 Bowman set.





Trying to make Chicken Salad without much Chicken

There are 60 cards featuring rookies in the relatively small 1954 Topps Baseball Card Set. Although the set had only 250 cards, Topps once again struggled to fill out the set due to contractual obligations of many of the players. To reach this number of cards, Topps printed cards of 25 coaches and managers. Many of the players and managers featured in the 1954 set would never have another card printed.

 Other characteristics

Instead of an expensive high numbered series, the second series of the 1954 Topps set (#51 - 75) is considered more expensive to collect. Despite a lack of stars featured in this series. The first series (#1-50) has been printed as a gray-backed version that may have been released in Canada. Topps also printed its first multi-player card, which featured twin brothers #139 Ed and John O’Brien.

What frustrates collectors, both in 1954 and today, is that the back of the cards are not oriented in a consistent manner. The 1954 Topps cards do not have a white border on the top of the card, which adds to the card’s beauty. In order to achieve this “bleed” feature the tops of the cards were lined-up against the tops of the cards of the next row on the printing sheet– so that half of the cards would be upside down on the sheet. This is the same technique that Topps used for its 1953 set. However, in 1954, the printer must have forgotten to orient the card backs in the same manner. Therefore, when the front of the cards are stacked to face the same way, half of the card backs have the card oriented to the left and half have the back oriented to the right. When the 1954 Topps cards are sorted in a box, one-half of the cards have the number at the tops of the card and one-half have it at the bottom. Fortunately, Topps never repeated this mistake.

Summary

The 1954 set would stand out from the previous three Topps sets for several other reasons as well. Unlike the 1952 and 1953 sets, there were no short printed cards, making the 1954 Topps set much easier to collect. For the first time, Topps used dual images on their card fronts. The black and white action shots that were superimposed next to the color head shots demonstrated just how innovative Topps was at the time. These dual images would appear on many Topps cards in the years to come. Although their lack of exclusive player contracts put Topps at a disadvantage when compared to Bowman, Topps certainly made up for it with their brightly-colored 1954 set.

 In 1954, there was little doubt that Topps had the most attractive baseball card. Naturally, collectors responded. DeansCards.com sells about five 1954 Topps cards for every three 1954 Bowman cards. I assume that the ratio was about the same with collectors in 1954, as both companies were very cost-conscious and did not want to waste money to print cards that would not sell.1954 was the third consecutive year that Topps outsold Bowman in the baseball card market.



This article is taken from Dean’s book “The Gum Card War and the Great Bowman & Topps Baseball Card Sets of 1948-1955”, which is now available for sale at Amazon.com.

Dean Hanley is an authority on vintage sports cards and has written numerous articles on the topic. Mr. Hanley is the founder DeansCards.com, and with well-over one million vintage cards in inventory, DeansCards.com is the largest seller of vintage cards on the web. Dean has also published “Before there was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards”, which is also available in eBook form at Amazon.com and has just released a T207 reprint set. For more information, please visit www.DeansCards.com 

If you are looking to sell your cards we would be happy to hear from you. Please fill out our sell your collection form here and we will be in touch.

The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 by Dean Hanley.

 Dean’s new book The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955 is now available for purchase. For over two years, everyone here at Dean’s Cards worked hard to put this book together.

The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955, by Dean Hanley is now available on Amazon.com in both e book and paperback.


 “In 1951, Bowman's short-lived baseball card monopoly was broken by Topps and the great Baseball Gum Card War was in full swing. Consumers almost always benefit from competition in the marketplace and the card collectors were no exception during the Baseball Bubble Gum Card War. The result was the birth and rapid evolution of the modern baseball card.

 Each spring during the years of 1952 to 1955, American boys had their choice between two great sets of baseball cards. The boys would cast their votes for their favorite issue of the year by sliding nickels across the counter of America's dime-stores to purchase baseball cards from either Topps or Bowman. These wonderful Topps and Bowman sets of the early 1950s sparked the addiction of an entire generation of boys to the hobby of collecting baseball cards.By the end of the decade, 89% of American boys would be collecting baseball cards.

 This battle between Topps and Bowman, for control of the baseball card market, became known as "The Great Baseball Card Bubble Gum War." This contest was fought with such ferocity, that shortly after the war began it became clear that only one company would be left standing at the conclusion of hostilities. The winner would take all.

 This epic conflict for the control of America's favorite collectible is brought to life by the author, Dean Hanley, who is a long-time collector and the founder of DeansCards.com, which has the largest online inventory of vintage sports cards ever assembled. Dean writes a popular blog and has had dozens of articles about vintage baseball cards published in the "Sports Collectors Digest."

 Mr. Hanley is also the co-author of the eBook, "Before there was Bubble Gum: Our Favorite Pre-World War I Baseball Cards."

Mr. Hanley combines his love of vintage sports cards, over forty years of card collecting experience, and extensive research to bring to life this fascinating battle for control of the bubble gum card market. Hanley examines each of these vintage baseball card sets from the era, details the evolution in the design of the cards, the companies that produced them, and the two visionary men that made these wonderful cards a reality and started a hobby that continues to this day.

"The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955" is a must for baseball card collectors and a fun read for fans of any age.”

  

 Dean Hanley is the founder of DeansCards.com Dean’s Cards is the #1 seller of vintage sports cards and has over a million cards posted online for sale. If you are looking to sell your cards we would be happy to hear from you. Please fill out our sell your collection form here and we will be in touch.

1954 Topps Baseball Cards

1954 Topps Baseball

The 1954 Topps Baseball Card set includes 250 vintage size cards, which measure 3 5/8” by 3¾”.  The 1954 Topps Baseball cards feature numerous Hall-of-Fame rookies as well as a few stars from pre-War days.  The middle-number series (51-75) is the most difficult and expensive to collect.

The key rookie cards are #25 Harvey Kuenn, #94 Ernie Banks, #128 Hank Aaron, #132 Tommy Lasorda and #201 Al Kaline.

• The 1954 Topps Baseball Card set featured Ted Williams on both the first and last cards (#1 and #250).  This is the only time that Topps ever had two regular cards of the same player.
• Dean’s Pick for the best 1954 Topps baseball card is the #250 Ted Williams card that shows Ted Williams with the bat on this shoulder.  This image has been reused many times over the years.
• In the early 1950’s, Topps and the Bowman Gum Co. were locked in a competitive battle for the baseball card market.  In 1954, Topps was able to sign the game’s biggest star - Ted Williams - to an exclusive 5-year contract its policy and offering Ted more money.  Up until that time, Topps paid standard, non-negotiable amount to all players.
• There were 11 Hall-of –Fame Players that went with Bowman, instead of Topps Baseball cards in 1954:  Roy Campanella, Bob Feller, Nellie Fox, George Kell, Ralph Kiner, Bob Lemon, Mickey Mantle, Pee Wee Reese, Robin Roberts, Red Schoendiest and Enos Slaughter.
• Some of the other stars missing from the 1954 Topps set include: Bobby Avila, Gus Bell, Lew Burdette, Smokey Burgess, Billy Cox, Al Dark, Del Ennis, Carl Erskine, Dee Fondy, Carl Furillo, Whitey Lockman, Gil McDonald, Minnie Minoso and Billy Pierce.
• Stan Musial did not want his picture on a card and had no baseball card again until his 1958 All-Star card.
• As a result of losing these top names, 1954 Topps Baseball card set contained rookie cards for almost 60 players.
• Many of the 1954 Topps rookies were unknown players (including 17 old coaches and 4 managers) who would never appear on cards again.
• Three of the 1954 Topps coaches cards were elected to the Hall-of-Fame: Earle Combs, Billy Herman and Heine Manush.
• 1954 Topps Baseball Cards were its first issue to feature both a portrait head shot view of the player and an action shot.
• The 1954 Topps 1^st series (cards #1 to #50) contain a “grey backed” version that is believed to have been printed and distributed in Canada.
• The 1954 Topps Baseball card set contained Topps’ first multi-player card of twin brothers Ed & John O’Brien
• 1954 Topps Baseball Cards were issued in one-card penny packs, five-card nickel packs and 15-card cello packs.
• Another innovation of the 1954 Topps baseball cards is that the backs of the cards had 2 or 3 panel cartoons that highlighted the player’s career.
• The back of the 1954 Topps Baseball card set was printed in sheet format in such a way that when the front of the cards are stacked to face the same way, half of card backs will have the card number at the top and half will have it at the bottom of the card.  This confusing over site has frustrated collectors ever since and the mistake was never repeated by Topps.
• The first two issues of Sports Illustrated Magazine contained 1954 Topps Baseball cards issued on paper stock.  The SI issue contains a card of Mickey Mantle, which is not available in the standard 1954 topps baseball card set.
• The 1954 Topps is the oldest set that is a relatively easy set to complete.  There are no really tough to find high numbers and except for the rookie cards – the card prices are reasonable – especially in lower grades.
• If you can not afford the expensive 1954 Topps rookie cards, then temporarily substitute cards from the 1954 Topps reprint set until your budget can afford the originals.  About everyone but the two Ted Williams cards are available.
• Get used to the portraits on the 1954 Topps baseball cards as many were reused by Topps for the 1955 and 1956 sets.