The Wichita Kansas early Bowman Football Find!
... by Brian Wentz (BMW Sportscards)
On
May 22 of last year, the telephone rang and a friendly voice asked if we were
interested in purchasing a group of Bowman football cards. The man on the other
end of the line explained that he had collected at least 8 sets of every issue
from 1952 to 1955. Certainly, we have received many solicitations where the
callers have made pretty fantastic claims but who in the world would possibly
accumulate that many football cards from that time period? Surely he was pulling
my leg or trying to generate a great deal of excitement. Perhaps he had one
set of each plus some duplicates and was exaggerating. In my mind, there was
absolutely no way that he could have what he claimed he did, especially eight
complete sets of the Holy Grail of football cards -- the 1952 Bowman Large series.
Still, the prospect was extremely intriguing, so a meeting was set for the end
of the next month. The man also said that he would be sending an inventory list.
I could not wait for this tantalizing mystery to unfold further.
Thirty-five days later, the man telephoned again to confirm that the meeting
was still on. That same day, when the postman delivered the mail, one of the
packages contained a comprehensive 12-page inventory list of the 1952 Bowman
Football card accumulation. I quickly estimated that there were at least 5,000
cards and based on the thoroughness of the lists, the work involved must have
been considerable. Unbelievably, every single card had been evaluated. This
had to be too good to be true because in my estimation, this would be 
one
of the largest accumulations of early 1950s Bowman football cards in the history
of the hobby! However, who would have taken the time to put down all of this
information if it were totally false; I had heard of elaborate hoaxes before,
but this would be at the top of a short list. That evening, momentarily setting
my incredulity aside, I flew to Wichita, Kansas.
The next morning - the day of my meeting with the collector -- I left at 6:00 A.M. to drive one and a half hours to a small town near the state border. The tension began to build as I realized that within a relatively short period of time, I might very well be viewing the one of the largest vintage football accumulations ever! Unfortunately, the directions that were provided seem to lead nowhere. The more I drove, the more I appeared to be lost; soon, I found myself in Oklahoma and on the wrong side of the border. More and more this began to seem like a wild goose chase. Had my suspicions been confirmed? Was it time to throw in the towel? After three hours of frustration, the identification of several "hairpin" turns, deciphering the location of some poorly marked country roads and a bit of luck, I finally pulled up to a house with the correct address. I looked around at my surroundings and the small town street and was a bit dismayed, for at that point it just didn't seem possible that anyone in such a remote located could have collected more than half a million dollars worth of early 50s football cards.
A
man appeared at the front door and invited me in. Soon, my perception began
to change. The inside of the house was sports memorabilia central: bobble heads,
Starting Line Ups, programs, posters, tickets, pins, buttons, statues and trophies…but
no visible cards. The collector left and quickly reappeared with four large
14-inch high Styrofoam boxes. He removed each lid, which revealed hundreds 8
and 9 pocket pages filled with 1952 Bowman football cards. Once removed, each
of the four stacks was a foot high! Amazingly, some of the cards were so fresh
that they looked as though they had just been taken directly from unopened packs.
He stated that they were all in number order. On the top of the first stack
were 38 Norm Van Brocklins (#1), then 45 Otto Grahams (#2). Farther down were
33 Frank Gifford Rookies (#16) and an unbelievable 59 singles of fellow Canton
Enshrinee, Charlie Trippi (#12). The least there were of any card was the vaunted
#144 Jim Lansford--only 22 (shown in picture, on top of sets and at left).
He commented that he really had enjoyed collecting 1952 Bowman football cards.
THAT was quite the understatement!
We had already discussed a fair settlement price, so it took only about 5 minutes to finish up. Included in the final tally were an additional 2 sets of 1950 Bowman and 8 sets each of 1954 and 1955 Bowman. We shook hands and he thanked me. I began my journey back and about two hours later, Wichita was again visible on the horizon.
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Upon arriving back at the hotel on Saturday afternoon, it dawned on me that there was no way to facilitate a FedEx pick-up until Monday. My options for transporting this many vintage football cards were clearly limited. Therefore, the next 15 hours were spent diligently removing more than 9,000 football cards from 8 and 9 pocket pages so that the cards would fit neatly in the large three-tiered shoeboxes. Room service arrived twice during this time period and they barely had space to set down the trays of food. What could have been a Saturday afternoon return quickly got pushed back -- a 10:47 A.M. next day flight was hurriedly arranged. After everything was completed, four shoeboxes were completely filled and they were stacked in pairs and carefully placed in two duffle bags. At 9:00 A.M., my airport check-in was completed and an hour later, the ticketing agent started passing out gate check receipts for anyone who had carry on luggage larger than a purse or small briefcase. When I handed her my boarding pass, I explained what I was carrying. She paused, looked at the bags and said that the carry-ons were fine, but only if the senior flight attendant would accept them. Whenever you carry a lot of valuables and fly, it is usually a good idea to be prompt since storage space disappears quickly. As I boarded the 50-seat mini-jet, I knew that if the duffle bags were put underneath two seats, there would be no problem with any FAA regulations. However, halfway up the plane's stairs, the flight attendant stopped me and demanded that I check both bags. I explained what was inside of them. She showed little sympathy and suggested that I take out whatever was valuable, and be prepared to check at least one bag. I was dumbfounded. Would anyone allow that much value in vintage football cards to be tossed haphazardly in the cargo hold of an airplane? She reluctantly allowed me to pass and after stowing both bags, I was relieved that the cards would be safe. However, just before take-off, she woke me up and again emphatically stated that one of the bags "absolutely" had to be checked. A couple of minutes later, the captain appeared and suggested there was probably a solution. He asked me to bring one of the bags to the front of the jet. There, he had me place the bag in the front row, window seat. A seat belt was placed over the bag and two minutes later, we took off. My fantastic journey had nearly reached its conclusion. |
It took three days to put everything in order, grade the collection and build sets. This was the final tally: |
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288 assorted 1950 Bowman Football Cards (2 complete sets) -- Book Value
$8,000.00
3,351 assorted 1952 Bowman Large Football Cards -- Book Value $357,875.00
2,433 assorted 1952 Bowman Small Football Cards -- Book Value
$121,440.00
1,024 assorted 1954 Bowman Football Cards (8 complete sets) -- Book
Value $13,600.00
1,280 assorted 1955 Bowman Football Cards (8 complete sets) -- Book
Value $12,800.00
1,056 assorted Football cards from the 1950s -- Book Value $13,516.00 |
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9,432 total early Bowman football cards -- Book Value $527,231.00 |
Finding thousands of 1950s baseball cards is not uncommon, but finding large
quantities of early 1950s football is unheard of. I would not have believed
that someone could uncover more than five thousand 1952 Bowman football cards
in a small rural Kansas town on the Oklahoma border or even in a large, metropolitan
city. On June 29, 2002, I'm glad I was proven wrong.
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The Coleman Company, established in 1901 by its founder,
W.C. Coleman, (who began leasing gas-funneled lamps to merchants in Kingfisher,
Oklahoma, to pay his way through law school) had three locations in Wichita,
Kansas during the decade. Originally known as the Hydro Carbon Company,
it saw the commercial development of a portable lamp in 1907. |
The
Coleman Company