1953 Bowman Baseball Color High-Grade Complete Set, 22 Slabbed (160)

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/19/2020

One of the true classics from the 1950s Golden Era of Card Collecting is offered here in striking mostly Ex-Mt to Near-Mint condition, with nearly two dozen important cards third-party slabbed and graded by PSA. Headlined by an absolutely gorgeous PSA 7 Stan Musial, the PSA-slabbed array provides a nice glimpse into the wider condition range, which is markedly better than these iconic 2 ½-by-3 ¾-inch cards are typically encountered in mature collections. Along with Musial there are PSA-blessed examples of Mantle, Berra, Ford, Reese, Feller, Martin, Durocher and Hodges, plus the famous Bauer/Mantle/Berra tri-card; the raw card lineup is no less imposing, with high-grade cards from Ashburn, Doby, Campanella, Mathews and Snider, to name a few. Overall, the set comes out to about 25 percent Near-Mint to Near-Mint to Mint, 65 percent Excellent to Ex-Mt and only 10 percent below, mostly to VG-Ex. With the pioneering use of color photography to great effect on an uncluttered card front sans any graphic elements or even type, the issue has always been a hobby favorite. About ¼ of the issue has the kind of centering that might prompt thoughts of an upgrade, but not all of those would be severe enough to dictate a formal off-center designation. Here’s the slabbed card lineup (22): PSA 8 (2) – No. 95 and No. 126; PSA 7 (10) – No. 9 Rizzuto, 32 Musial, 55 Durocher, 70, 79, 102, 108, 114 Feller, 115 and 133; PSA 6.5 – No. 148; PSA 6 (4) – No. 33 Reese, 92 Hodges, 118 Martin and 153 Ford; PSA 5.5 – No. 116; PSA 5 (3) – No. 44 Bauer/Mantle/Berra and 121 Berra; PSA 4 – No. 59 Mantle; and No. 93 Rizzuto/Martin – Altered Stock. Breakdown of key raw cards: No. 1 Williams – Ex, 10 Ashburn – Ex-Plus, 18 Fox – VG-Ex, 21 Garagiola – Ex-Mt o/c, 40 Doby – Ex-Mt o/c, 46 Campanella – Ex-Mt, 51 Irvin – Near-Mint, 57 Boudreau – VG-Ex, 61 Kell – Ex-Mt, 62 Kluszewski – Ex-Mt o/c, 63 McDougald – Ex-Mt, 65 Roberts – VG, 78 Furillo – VG-Ex, 80 Kuenn – VG-Ex, 81 Slaughter -VG-Ex, 96 Maglie – Ex, 97 Mathews – Ex-Plus, 99 Spahn – VG-Ex, 101 Schoendienst – Ex-Mt-Plus, 117 Snider – Ex-Mt-Plus o/c, 143 Lopez – Ex and 160 Abrams – VG.