You may think they look quaint, maybe even dorky, now, but how would you have designed 1955 Bowman baseball cards, Skippy?
I mean, imagine you’re Mr. Bowman Designer and you’re coming off an effort that included big player images with little pieces of sticky tape at the card bottoms with facsimile autographs.
And that Topps had kicked but with their painted, big-head-little-action-figurine design in 1954.
You’d want something snazzy, right? Something cool? Hip? Contemporary? Modern?
Something to make the kids say, “Man these Mr. Bowman Dudes dudes know what they’re doing!”?
Right.
So you’d take your little player photos and wrap them in the most 1950s-y rendition of a wooden-cabinet color TV you could come up with, and you’d call it soup.
Domination would be yours.
And then … not so much.
But at least you would have built a memorable last set. And that’s just what Bowman did.
And even now, 70 years or so later, these things are still plenty desirable, even if it’s for the sake of curiosity, and because those TV cabinets flake and make it a real challenge to find sharp cards.
With all that in mind, here are the 12 most valuable 1955 Bowman baseball cards, based on PSA 7 listings in the PSA Sports Market Report Price Guide.
Let’s tune in to the action right now …
1955 Bowman Mickey Mantle (#202)
If were looking for a Mickey Mantle baseball card in 1955, you could either buy some packs of Bowman or … well, or nothing, really.
Bowman was pretty much the only game in town when it came to The Mick since Topps whiffed on the young slugger.
Little wonder, then, that this is a $5000 card in PSA 7.
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1955 Bowman Willie Mays (#184)
Mays may have been the most talented player of the three at the top of our list … heck, he may have been the most talented player of all time.
And the real heck of it is that he pretty much lived up to the promise of all that talent.
As is the case with Aaron, Mays’ 1955 Topps card is drop-dead gorgeous, while his Bowman issue just sort of … is.
Still, it’s about $2000 card in graded NM condition.
1955 Bowman Hank Aaron (#179)
Sandwiched between two dudes most fans thought might have a chance to take out Babe Ruth‘s all-time record sits the dude who actually did it.
In 1955, Hank Aaron had just one season and 13 home runs under his belt, though he did have two mainstream cards that summer.
It’s hard to beat the colorful Topps issue, but this second-year Hammer card checks in at around $1500 in PSA 7.
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1955 Bowman Ernie Banks (#242)
Like Aaron, Banks made his Bowman debut in 1955, as Topps’ rival dropped the ball on the two young sluggers in 1954.
Mr. Cub looks fine enough in his television set rendering, though the lack of Cubs branding significantly diminishes the visual impact of this card.
Not significantly enough, though, to hold it below $1200 in PSA 7 condition.
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1955 Bowman Yogi Berra (#168)
There is a steep dropoff in present-day value from the big four sluggers listed above to the more middling slugger in this slot.
But Berra was more than just a power hitter — he hit for average, drove in runs, handled a championship pitching staff, excelled in the World Series, and was, in many ways, the heart and soul of the 1950s Yankees dynasty.
And, in 1955, he would nab his third American League MVP award and second in a row.
For all that, the TV-bound Hall of Fame receiver typically fetches around $325 in PSA 7.
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1955 Bowman Roy Campanella (#22)
Most of what I said about Berra applies to Campanella, too, except he won his