• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Get Sports Collectors Daily via EMail
    • Advertise with SC Daily
    • Write for Sports Collectors Daily
    • Write About Your Sports Collection
    • Where Can I Sell My Baseball Cards?
  • Hot on eBay
    • Most Watched Graded Rookies
    • Most Watched PSA 10 Cards
    • Most Watched BGS, BVG Cards
    • Most Watched SGC Cards
    • Most Watched CSG,CGC Cards
    • Most Watched Baseball Cards
      • Most Watched 2023 Baseball Cards
      • Most Watched 2022 Baseball Rookie Cards
      • Bowman Chrome Cards
      • Ronald Acuna Jr. Cards
      • Shohei Ohtani Cards
      • Mike Trout Cards
      • Fernando Tatis Jr. Cards
      • Babe Ruth Cards
      • Hank Aaron Cards
      • Jackie Robinson Cards:
      • Mickey Mantle Cards
      • Willie Mays Cards
      • Vintage Baseball Card Sets
      • T206 Cards
    • Most Watched Basketball
      • Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2022-23 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2021-22 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2020-21 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2019-20 NBA Rookie Cards
        • Zion Williamson Rookie Cards
        • Ja Morant Rookie Cards
      • Michael Jordan Cards
      • Kobe Bryant Cards
      • LeBron James Rookie Cards
      • Nikola Jokic Rookie Cards
      • Giannis Antetokounmpo Cards
      • Luka Doncic Rookie Cards
      • Prizm Basketball Cards
      • Panini National Treasures
    • Most Watched Football Cards
      • Most Watched NFL Rookie Cards
      • 2022 NFL Rookie Cards
        • Brock Purdy Rookie Cards
      • 2021 NFL Rookie Cards
      • 2020 NFL Rookie Cards
        • Joe Burrow Rookie Cards
        • Justin Herbert Rookie Cards
        • Jalen Hurts Rookie Cards
      • Josh Allen Rookie Cards
      • Patrick Mahomes Rookie Cards
      • Tom Brady Cards
    • Most Watched Hockey Cards
      • Top 100 Most Watched Hockey Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2021-22 NHL Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2020-21 Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2019-20 Rookie Cards
      • Connor McDavid Cards
      • Wayne Gretzky Cards
      • Bobby Orr Cards
    • Most Watched Soccer Cards
    • Most Watched UFC Cards
    • Most Watched Golf Cards
    • Most Watched 1 of 1 Cards
    • Most Watched Racing Cards
    • Top Sports Card Dealers on eBay
    • Most Watched Memorabilia
      • Vintage Sports Memorabilia
    • Vintage Sports Tickets, Stubs
    • Most Watched Autographs
  • Ending Soon on Ebay
    • Baseball Cards
    • Basketball Cards
    • Football Cards
    • Hockey Cards
    • Soccer Cards
    • Golf Cards
    • UFC Cards
  • Top - Ad

Sports Collectors Daily

Sports Collectors Daily

Sports collecting news - Sports cards and sports memorabilia industry news.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. 

  • Sports Memorabilia News
  • Sports Card News
    • Modern Sports Card News
      • New Sports Card Release Calendar
      • Shop Talk
    • Vintage Sports Card News
      • Affordable Vintage Cards, Collectibles
      • Old Baseball Card Sets
      • Old Basketball Card Sets
      • Old Football Card Sets
      • Old Hockey Card Sets
      • Vintage Pack Facts
  • Business/Industry News
    • Sports Memorabilia Business News
    • Sports Memorabilia Industry News
  • Around The Hobby
    • Editor’s Blog
    • David Cycleback’s Identification and Authentication Advice
  • Popular Stories
  • Sell Your Cards
You are here: Home / Sports Card News / Vintage Sports Card News / Old Baseball Card Sets / 1948 Bowman Baseball Set Launched Post-War Card Market

1948 Bowman Baseball Set Launched Post-War Card Market

July 10, 2015 By Adam Hughes

After a flurry of colorful and interesting issues released just as the Great Depression began to lift in the late 1930s, baseball cards disappeared from the American la1948 bowman sainndscape after 1941 thanks to the ravages and rations of World War II. Seven long years later, and nearly three full years after our troops came home, the 1948 Bowman baseball set gave the hobby a tentative breath of life.

Though rival confectioner Leaf produced a set that was arguably much more attractive that same year, it was the Bowman issue that seeded the soil for the gum-card wars of the 1950s and helped establish a base from which the the modern hobby could grow.

For all its historical importance, though, the 1948 Bowman set remains affordable and, in some ways, underrated.

Petite Polaroids

The reason that the 1948 Bowmans have lagged in popularity over the decades is as plain as the nose on Warren Spahn’s face: an uninspired design executed on (relatively) tiny swaths of cardboard.1948 Bowman Baseball Yogi Berra Back

Measuring just 2-1/16″ x 2-1/2″, each card front features a simple black-and-white player photo surrounded by a white border.  Many of the photos are basic head-and-shoulders shots, while a few venture into the realm of profiles (Spahn) or awkward posed action shots (Ferris Fain).

Card backs are a bit more interesting, presenting a wall of text that leads off with the card number and player name on top, followed by his position, team name, and vital stats. The middle third of each card is devoted to a biographical sketch, and the very bottom contains the Bowman name and copyright information.

Without question, the most colorful aspect of the 1948 Bowman issue are the three lines of text wedged between the bio and the legalese:

ASK FOR BLONY BUBBLE GUM

The Bubble Gum with

the three different flavors

What Little Leaguer wouldn’t line up for that?

Where Have You Gone …

Well, sure, if you were looking for a card of Joe DiMaggio in 1948, lining up for Bowman wouldn’t have done you any good.

They didn’t have him.

Prefer the Splendid Splinter? Um, Bowman whiffed on Ted Williams, too.

The hue-advantaged Leaf set picked up the slack on both of those gents, easily the most popular players in the game as Baby Boomers began clogging turnstiles with their parents.

Still, Bowman scored the only Dave Koslo rookie card (#48), and that should count for something.

Truth be told, the Blony Blokes managed to squeeze in a few more recognizable names into their debut set, too.

Spahn and Sain and Pray for … Rookies?

That Spahn card (#18) happens to be the lefty’s rookie issue, and rotation-mate Johnny Sain (#12) also makes his cardboard debut in the 1948 Bowman set.Stan Musial rookie card

Beyond the rain-dance twins, the issue contains rookie cards of Hall of Famers Yogi Berra (#6), Ralph Kiner (#3), Phil Rizzuto (#8), and Red Schoendienst (#38). The first BIG hero in the World Series during the television era, Bobby Thomson (#47), also calls 1948 Bowman his rookie home.

The major coup for Bowman in ’48, though, was the rookie card of Stan Musial (#36). Because Stan the Man made his Major League debut way back in 1941, the early years of his career were not chronicled by card makers. As a consequence, his 1948 Bowman rookie is a issue card that brings well over $1500 once you move into the realm of graded NEAR MINT copies.

If you add in veteran holdovers like Bob Feller (#5) and Enos Slaughter (#17), about a fifth of the 1948 Bowman set is devoted to men who today are enshrined in Cooperstown.

Tiny an1948_Bowman phil rizzutod Tough

Of course, that ratio is boosted by both the dearth of cards during the heart of the 1940s AND the set’s tiny checklist.

Initially limited to just 36 cards, the 1948 Bowman set was expanded to 48 during a second print run. In order to accommodate the 12 new cards without busting their 36-card sheets, Bowman removed 12 of the original cards (#7, 8, 13, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 34) from that final printing. As a consequence, the “deleted” cards are considered to be single prints and command roughly twice as much as other cards in the set.

The only major star that falls into the single-print category is the Rizzuto rookie, which can fetch close to $1000 in slabbed NM-MT condition.

A Contract to Kill … the Competition

It’s somewhat curious that Bowman limited themselves to such a small player roster, when there are indications that a much bigger pool was available to them.

Because, while LeBob Feller 1948 Bowmanaf was busy skip-numbering their set either to entice collectors to search for cards that didn’t exists or to allow for expansion into 1949, Bowman had a different tactic in mind for dominating the card world. According to the book The Bubble Gum Card War, Bowman had 106 players under contract for 1948.

Given their swap-out strategy for adding 12 cards to the set, it seems likely that Bowman was most interested in containing costs during their maiden voyage. Even so, locking down a large percentage of Major League players gave them an advantage heading into 1949, and Leaf bowed out of the market before the Fifties ever dawned.

Vintage Attainability

Bowman’s failure to expand their initial offering beyond 48 cards makes building a 1948 set a reasonable goal for most collectors. You can usually pick up ungraded commons in VG (or so) condition for around $20, though slabbed MINT single prints bring more than $500.

If you want t1948 Bowman Yogi Berrao take the leg work out of tracking down all 48 cards, you could opt to buy one of the complete sets of 1948 Bowman baseball that occasionally comes to market. Though you can hold out for a REALLY top condition specimen and hope it stays under $20K, you could also lower your sights a bit and pick up a decent looking ungraded set for less than $2000.

The Start of a Trend?

With a war-torn nation finally starting to settle into a more optimistic rhythm, the 1948 season looked like it just might sweep a couple of franchises into the frontrunner division to challenge the yearly supremacy of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers.

When the Cleveland Indians put the finishing touches on the Boston Braves to take the World Series  — four games to two — both clubs seemed to be o1948 Bowman Red Schoendienstn the verge of continued excellence. Touting strong pitching and talented hitters, Boston and Cleveland were poised to trade post-season jabs for the next decade or more.

Instead, both teams stumbled in 1949, and the Braves were in Milwaukee by 1953. Though the Indians romped to a pennant in 1954 before losing the Series and the Braves made it to the Series in 1958, neither club matched their promise from 1948.

As it turned out, Leaf fit right in with the Braves and Indians, thanks to Bowman’s foresight in signing players to card contracts and an improved 1949 set that pushed their promising competitor out of the market.

Though humble in style and execution, though, it’s the 1948 Bowman baseball set that stands as the progenitor to the modern hobby. This underrated set begat the Blony gum card dynasty of the early 1950s, which eventually gave way to the Topps monopoly just a few years later.

Who would have ever thought that a simple black-and-white Bob Elliott rookie, Bowman’s first-ever card (#1), could launch a billion dollar industry?

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Facebook Messenger

Related Stories:

5 Solid Buys in the 1951 Topps Red and Blue Back Sets The Southpaw Survivor – 5 Cool Warren Spahn Cards, Vintage and Modern Lelands Opens Monthly Auction Platform 1947 Tip Top Set Was A Post-War Pioneer Unopened 1948 Bowman baseball packsWere 1948 Bowman Packs a Reasonable Deal? Unopened 1948 Bowman baseball packsBidding for Vintage Wax Find Already Booming Remembering ‘The Man’: Six Great Cards Of Stan Musial Yogi Berra rookie cardRamblings: Yogi Berra Rookie Card Was Only the Beginning

About Adam Hughes

Adam Hughes began collecting in the early 1980s and rode out the boom and bust of the 1990s as a part-time dealer and full-time student. Today, he is an IT professional and freelance writer who still follows the hobby closely. He also writes for Riverfront Ball. Email him at [email protected].

Filed Under: Old Baseball Card Sets, Sports Card News, Vintage Sports Card News Tagged With: 1948 Bowman, 1948 Bowman baseball, 1948 Bowman baseball set, Phil Rizzuto, Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, Yogi Berra

Primary Sidebar

Our articles may contain affiliate links. When you click on links to merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. 

Shop Sports Cards on Ebay
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball
  • Hockey

High End Cards and Memorabilia

  • BBCE Authenticated Boxes, Packs opens in a new window
  • Graded pre-War Card eBay Auctions
  • PWCC Premier Auction
  • PWCC Fixed Price Marketplace
  • Graded Rookie Cards on eBay opens in a new window
  • Authenticated Photos on eBay opens in a new window
  • Graded Tickets & Stubs opens in a new window

Bargain Corner

  • Michael Jordan cards $5 and less opens in a new window
  • Kobe Bryant cards $5 and less opens in a new window
  • Mickey Mantle Cards Under $150 opens in a new window
  • Graded T206 Cards Under $150 opens in a new window
  • Pre-War Cards Under $100 opens in a new window
  • Pre-1980 Graded Baseball Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Pre-1980 Graded Football Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Basketball Cards $25 and less opens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Hockey Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Complete Sets $20 and Less opens in a new window
  • Baseball Hall of Famers for $5 or Less opens in a new window
  • Football Hall of Famers for $5 or Less opens in a new window
  • Hobby Boxes Under $30 opens in a new window
  • Pre-1986 Rookie Cards Under $1 opens in a new window
  • Buy Boxes Directly from Topps opens in a new window

RSS Auction Report

  • Grey Flannel Auctions Accepting Consignments & Buying
  • Goldin 2023 Weekly Auctions
  • Steve Novella Offers PSA Baseball & Football Card Auction Ending October 3, 2023

Footer

Categories

  • Around the Hobby
  • Business/Industry News
    • Sports Memorabilia Business News
    • Sports Memorabilia Industry News
  • David Cycleback's Identification and Authentication Advice
  • Editor's Blog
  • Featured Articles
  • Hobby Shop Talk
  • National Sports Collectors Convention
  • Popular Stories
  • Rich Klein's Ramblings
  • Sports Card News
    • Modern Sports Card News
      • New Sports Card Release Calendar
    • Vintage Sports Card News
      • Old Baseball Card Sets
      • Old Basketball Card Sets
      • Old Football Card Sets
      • Old Hockey Card Sets
      • Vintage Pack Facts
  • Sports Memorabilia News
  • Uncategorized

Sponsor Links

  • Sports Card Forumopens in a new window
  • Buying Vintage Sports Cardsopens in a new window
  • Game Used Jerseysopens in a new window
  • Championship Rings For Saleopens in a new window
  • Vintage Basketball Cardsopens in a new window
  • NBA Signed Itemsopens in a new window
  • Autographed Baseballsopens in a new window
  • NASCAR Autographsopens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Baseball Cardsopens in a new window
  • Player Picturesopens in a new window
  • Vintage Football Cardsopens in a new window
  • Sports Collectors Storeopens in a new window

Pages

Ending on eBay Soon
  • Baseball Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Basketball Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Football Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Hockey Card Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
  • Vintage Sports Memorabilia on eBay Ending Soon
Top 100 on Ebay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Baseball Rookie Cards on eBay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards for Sale on eBay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Hockey Rookie Card Auctions
  • Top Authenticated Vintage Unopened Sports Card Boxes, Packs on eBay
Most Watched on eBay
  • 100 Most Watched Graded Rookie Cards for Sale on eBay
  • 100 Most Watched Tom Brady Card Auctions on eBay
  • 50 Hottest Hobby Boxes at Auction on eBay
  • 50 Most Watched Golf Trading Cards on eBay
  • 50 Most Watched Wrestling Trading Cards on eBay
  • 75 Most Watched Bowman Chrome Cards
  • Most Popular Bobbleheads on eBay
  • Most Watched 1/1 Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Basketball Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Complete Baseball Card Sets at Auction on eBay
  • Most Watched Football Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Football Rookie Card Auctions
  • Most Watched Goudey Baseball Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Hockey Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Racing Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Soccer Cards for Sale on eBay
  • Most Watched Sports Autographs on eBay
  • Most Watched Sports Jerseys on eBay
  • Most Watched Unopened Sports Card Boxes, Packs on eBay
  • Most Watched Vintage Sports Memorabilia on eBay
  • Hottest Panini National Treasures Cards on eBay
  • Hottest PSA 10 Cards for Sale on eBay
  • What’s Hot on eBay
Sports Memorabilia
  • Sports Card Bargain Bin
  • Sports Memorabilia Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
About Sports Collectors Daily
  • Advertise with SC Daily
  • Contact Us
  • Get Sports Collectors Daily via EMail
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Sell Your Cards
  • What’s It Worth
  • Where Can I Sell My Baseball Cards?

Copyright © 2023 SportsCollectorsDaily.com | Web Design by Wickam Groupopens in a new window