1951 Bowman

The 1950 Pittsburgh Pirates Photo Pack: A Rare Team-Issue Set with 1951 Bowman Connections

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One of the rarest team-issued photo sets, the 1950 Pittsburgh Pirates Picture Pack is a 26-photo gem, with several images used as the basis for 1951 Bowman cards. Kiner is the set’s highlight, but its original envelope is rarer and nearly impossible to find.

Mastro and Stenbach’s August 1997 Fine Sports Auctions Catalog offered this example.

The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards describes the 26-card 1950 Pittsburgh Pirates Photo Pack as follows:

The player photos in this picture pack that was sold at Forbes Field measure 6-1/2” x 9” and are printed in black-and-white on heavy, blank-backed paper. A facsimile ‘autograph’ is printed on front of each picture, though all were written in the same hand. Several of the photos from this set were the basis for the color paintings found on 1951 Bowman Cards. The unnumbered pictures are checklisted here alphabetically.

A few past auctions have said that perhaps the set only has 25 photos, noting that maybe the Dillinger didn’t exist. However, the Standard Catalog includes it, and I found the following photo of one on eBay as part of a complete set that was listed for $160 in November 2024.

The eBay asking price of $160 is reasonable considering how few set sales I managed to track down and because Huggins and Scott sold a partial set of 20 for $172 in August 2022.

Also, contrary to the standard catalog, some auctions mentioned that the photos are on thin stock, not heavy-backed paper.

Finally, here are two photo pack images, Bell and Law, that were the basis for the ’51 Bowman cards.

I believe Pete Castiglione, Cliff Chambers, Murry Dickson, Vic Lombardi, Bill Macdonald, and Clyde McCullough are the others who match.

Update 16 December 2024: After I shared the article on my socials, SABR Baseball Cards shared the following photo of Pirates GM Joe L. Brown with a stack of the photos!

1951 Bowman Baseball Unopened Products

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I came across a 1951 Bowman Baseball one-cent display box in Ron Oser Enterprises’ April 2001 catalog, which inspired me to revive posts on the blog highlighting complete unopened product runs from various sets. This time, instead of dedicated pages, I’ll be sharing them as blog posts with a bit of added commentary.

1951 Bowman Wax Pack

With a certification that starts with 104, I’d be apprehensive about the authenticity of this pack without getting my hands on it or without a word from an expert in the hobby, like Steve Hart, who authenticates packs for PSA. Memory Lane Inc. sold it for $6,848 in May 2017.

Mile High Card Co. resold the pack for $4,672 in May 2020.

I’ve been unable to find any photos of 1951 Bowman five-cent wax packs.

1951 Bowman Wax Wrappers

Heritage sold this one-cent wrapper for $1,260 in September 2022, which seems unusually high because Collect Auctions sold the second example for just $196 in August 2020.

Heritage has also sold a five-cent wrapper before; the following one went for $1,260 in September 2022.

And years ago, in August 2016, Huggins and Scott sold the following pair of 1951 Bowman wrappers for $768.

1951 Bowman Wax Boxes

Display boxes are exceedingly rare and highly desirable. I’m also unaware of any full boxes. Memory Lane sold the following one-cent display box for just over $1k in December 2009.

Lelands also sold one of these one-cent display boxes, also quite a few years ago, in November 2008, for $437.

Memory Lane also sold a five-cent display box in the same auction as the one-cent box for $1,214 in December 2009.

Ridiculous Collection Of Vintage Baseball Wax Boxes

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In the spring of 2008, along with The Greatest Collection of Vintage Bowman and Topps Football Display Boxes, someone also consigned the most ridiculous group of baseball boxes to Mastro Auctions, which included the following:

  • 1936 Goudey “Big League Gum” One-Cent Display Box
  • 1939 Gum, Inc. “Play Ball America” Baseball Centennial One-Cent Display Box
  • 1941 Gum Products, Inc. “Double Play” One-Cent Display Box
  • 1950 Bowman Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1951 Bowman Baseball Five-Cent Display Box
  • 1952 Bowman Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1956 Topps Baseball Five-Cent Display Box, “Dated” Version GAI NM+ 7.5
  • 1957 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1958 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1961 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box
  • 1962 Topps Baseball One-Cent Display Box

Whitey Ford, A 1982 Card Show, And His 1951 Bowman Baseball Card

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Have you been to any great card shows lately? I’ll bet the Sports Memorabilia Show #4 in Whippany, New Jersey, was a good one!

This ad comes from the July 1982 issue of Trader Speaks and highlights Whitey Ford’s attendance during Sunday’s show, where he had agreed to sign 1000 autographs on a first-come, first-served basis.

Given that the ad features Ford’s 1951 Bowman baseball card, I thought it would be fun to take a look at a few sales of them:

REA has sold a handful, including the following PSA VG 3 Auto 10 copy with an HOF ’74 inscription for $780 in 2018, a PSA authentic copy for $510 in 2021, and a fairly beat-up card with an authentic signature for $450 in 2022.

Interestingly, REA re-sold the PSA VG 3 Auto 10 copy in 2023 for $3600, quite an increase! That’s probably because Ford died in 2020.

Now, some cards change hands quite often, so guess what? Probstein sold the same PSA VG 3 Auto 10 Ford on eBay on May 29, 2024, for $2200.

What’s more, the beat-up version above with cert 17605781 is also on eBay, with an asking price of $1699. There’s another PSA authentic copy on eBay as well, with an asking price of $1299.99 (cert 43601626). Given these prices, someone possibly got quite a steal when they picked up this blue-label version in April 2024 for $500.

The Worst Baseball Card?

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The February 1993 issue of Baseball Cards featured a section called Readers’ Choice, but I’m going to have to disagree with Eric Hoffman on this one!

The 1951 Bowman #195 Paul Richards card is the only cartoon image in the 324-card set.

I’ve read that the most common theory concerning the card was that Richards wasn’t named the manager of the Sox until the Bowman cards were nearly ready to print and because Richards retired as an MLB player in 1946 (he was a player-manager with the Buffalo Bisons of the International League from 1947-49), Bowman didn’t have any recent or suitable photos of Richards to colorize, so they had one of their artists do a last-second drawing.

1950-52 Bowman and Topps Display Boxes

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Vintage, empty display boxes just weren’t as popular as they are today when, in April 2003, this trio was auctioned off in a lot TOGETHER.

Included were a two-piece red and blue 1951 Bowman 120 Count One-Cent Box, a one-piece red and blue 1952 Bowman 24 Count Five-Cent box, and an incredible two-piece red and green 1952 Topps 24 Count Five-Cent Box.

The 1952 Topps box is particularly rare. It has a blue and white “NEW SERIES” label on the front pane of the bottom of the box.