1953 Topps Baseball Cards
Various aspects of the 1953 Topps set are partially a result of the ongoing rivalry between Bowman and Topps which was reaching fever pitch about this time. One major detail of the set that is definitely due to Bowman is that the set is missing 6 cards in the numerical series.
The cards were never issued because the players to be featured on them switched allegiances and signed contracts with Bowman forcing Topps to pull the cards before they could hit the market. Contracts with Bowman kept a few greats like Stan Musial and Duke snider from being featured in this set.
This set contains 280 individual cards, which was a major reduction from the 1952 set. The reason for this was because football cards were now capturing a portion of the market and many of the prior year's set of baseball ones went unsold. The set was released in four series: 1-85, 86-165, 166-220, and 221-280.
Cards to look for from the first series include Smokey Burgess, Ellis Kinder, and early Wynn. The #280 Willie Mays card is one of the rarest and is valued at several thousand dollars on today's auction market. The #1 card was Jackie Robinson and that is one of the most valuable cards of the set along with the @280 card of Milt Bolling.
The jackpot collector's items from the set are 2 of the original oil paintings used for the Mickey Mantle card and the Willie Mays card. The Mantle painting was sold at auction for a whopping $110,000! Topps opted for hand painted portraits for 1953 rather than the all-color photos Bowman was using.
Ironically the two companies had just made an exact switch as Topps had used colored in photos the previous years and Bowman had used hand-painted portraits. Each company was probably trying to capture some of the other's glory.
The color team logo was one detail that stayed the same from 1952 though. Cards for American League players had a red panel where the players name was printed at the bottom of the card, and National League player's cards had a black panel. Cards with panels of either color are very vulnerable to wear and damage along the edges.
The backs of the cards were unique in that they featured the first trivia questions to be printed on Topps baseball cards. The backs also feature bio and state info and a short write-up. There is one well-known variation about the backs of the cards.
The backs all had a red panel at the top which contained personal player data. Some of the cards have this data printed in black and some have it in white. The ones with black print are the rarest. The set contained the usual scarce high numbered cards as well which were between #221 and #280. There were some other short printed cards in within those numbers as well.