July 23rd, 2009 |
Published in
Football Card Trivia
If you browse through the 1952-1954 Bowman cards in the Vintage Football Card Gallery, you will find a few that show the player with a white football. Two are pictured here: a 1953 Bowman Fran Polsfoot and a 1954 Bowman Doak Walker. According to profootballresearchers.org, the NFL and AAFC used a white football in night games from 1929 to 1956, to help the players see the ball in poor lighting. Wikipedia’s article on the Cleveland Browns says that in the 1950s, the NFL also prohibited teams from wearing white helmets and jerseys in night games, so that the white ball could be seen against the players’ uniforms. Some teams thus had different helmets and jerseys for day and night games.
The other mysterious white football is the big, ugly one with the player’s name in it that is part of the design of 1953 Bowman cards. To me, the big football overwhelms the rest of the card and makes the 1953 set the least attractive of the early Bowmans. Might it have been inspired by the NFL’s use of the white ball? On Pete Pihos’s card, Bowman actually put the big white ball in his hands!
July 4th, 2009 |
Published in
error cards
There are two versions of 1954 Bowman football card number 97. My Beckett price guide calls them “97A Tom Finnin ERR” and “97B Tom Finnan COR.” PSA lists the two versions as “Tom Finnin (incorrectly spelled)” and “Tom Finnan” in their price guide, and in their population report they say the two versions are “Tom Finnin – Wrong Last Name On Back” and “Tom Finnan – Correct Last Name On Back.” SGC‘s population report says “TOM FINNAN – Error ‘Finnin’ Reverse” and “TOM FINNAN.”
So which is right? As it turns out, none of the above.
Indeed, one version of the card says Tom Finnan on both sides, and the other says Tom Finnan on the front and Tom Finnin on the back. But according to nfl.com, databasefootball.com, and pro-football-reference.com, the correct spelling of Tom’s last name is Finnin. So both cards are error cards: one is wrong on both sides, and one is wrong on just the front.
So which version of the card is harder to find? My old Beckett says “Tom Finnin ERR” is worth $60 and “Tom Finnan COR” is worth $8 in near mint condition. PSA’s price guide says a PSA 7 “Tom Finnin (incorrectly spelled)” is worth $75 and “Tom Finnan” is worth $14. PSA’s population report says that they have graded three times as many “Tom Finnan – Correct Last Name On Back” cards as “Tom Finnin – Wrong Last Name On Back” card. But then I have an example with Finnin on the back that PSA has labeled “ERROR-TOM FINNAN.” That label doesn’t match either of the versions listed in PSA’s population report.
It appears that the card with “Finnan” on the back is more common than the one with “Finnin” on the back. But with all the confusion over the two versions of the card, it’s hard to say how scarce the latter card really is.
Search for 1954 Bowman cards on: eBay, Nearmint’s Cards
