The Bubble Gum Card War: The Great Bowman & Topps Sets from 1948 to 1955

Although it is one big advertisement for his card company he does it right. It covers the time from when the Bowman company started to when the Topps company came along to the end of the gum wars where only one company could survive or was it preventable? You decide. It brought me back to when I was a kid and my nickel was king. I loved this book. Very light reading only 150 pages or so.

The Bubble Gum Card War answered a ton of questions I have had since I began completing my sets from the 50's! Born in 1945, the 50's were my little league/Babe Ruth league years playing baseball, buying, "flipping", and collecting cards. After reading Dean's Bubble Gum Card War, I now understand why some cards are so hard to find, ie. short prints; why there were no Topps football cards before 1955; what happened to Bowmen cards; why certain stars like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, etc. were not on cards every year, etc., etc. I am presently an avid collector, and have "filled in" most of my sets from the 50's. The Bubble Gum Card War really helped, and Dean's Cards is my online source for hard to find cards.

Bowman and Topps go head to head in the bubble gum card wars of 1951 to1955, fighting over player contracts, card designs, and in the courtroom. Card size increases as the set sizes decrease as fewer players are available to each of the competitors. Coaches, umpires, and utility players appear on cards to fill-in the sets. Ted Williams lands a big contract as Stan Musial holds out. Topps eventually buys Bowman and promptly reduces the cards' size, the number of cards in a pack, and creativity declines while maintaining a monopoly for the next quarter century. The author reviews each card set, year by year, noting developments and changes.

Its clear that the author appreciates vintage cards and know alot about the subject. I learned alot, despite having collected cards most of my life. So why isn't this a five star review?1) As already mentioned by others, the lack of pictures hurts the experience. Dean does a good job describing these iconic sets but visuals would have done more.2) The editing on this is sloppy. The amount of formatting errors was noticable, even saw a sentence without a period. Certain points are made more than once. I expect this short book to have been reviewed more carefully.3) I found the constant references to the author's online card business to be obxious. Also, there is a lot of rarity and condition data based on his personnel inventory levels. Get he purchases alot of collections but occasional third party references would have shaken it up.

Dean has done a truly masterful job in documenting the hidden history of the baseall card wars of 1950-1955. I believe that this manuscript could be expanded upon with some documented interviews with some of the major players of that time. Back in the day there were ball players who interacted with the Sy Bergers of the world.These encounters relating to the card wars could be further amplified and collected for a new book. More of this historical information would make an already great read and contribution to baseball card history but it could be elevated to classic status. Terrific job Dean your efforts are recognized and greatly appreciated. Jimmy R.

The history of the few baseball card companies in USA is an insightful look on how this business began with the logistics of printing and "making a business of selling chewing gum" A premier dealer, knows all of the facts and details us collectors want to know and although it's all now here for us to purchase in conditions based on price, its sad to see this era go, along with the innocence of just being collaborative with friends in trying to complete to collect each series and the complete set. I wish there were a book on the various current card company manufacturers for all of the sport and non sports cards produced in America. That would also be of interest to me.

What an awesome book. I sat down with my Dad today to look through the book and he has enjoyed it as much as I have. We loved to great pictures and write ups. Looking forward to buying some more of your book.

I tore through this rather short book in a weekend. The details on the 1950s sets is spectacular, and it's clear the author has a passion for the game of baseball and collecting cards. The lack of pictures is a bit frustrating (likely a licensing issue), so it sent me to Google many times to see what the author was describing... something he did quite well.Still, there are issues with the writing and editing. There are some sentences over flowing with unnecessary punctuation (usually commas), while others that need them are lacking. Also, there are many incomplete sentences.Ex. (P. 131 in "The Men in Black")"Kids who had already bought the previous two series full of players and had no interest in the coach and umpire-heavy last series."There is either a second half of that sentence missing, or the first "and" should not be there.Given the subject matter, it's not a huge deal. But, it makes some sections a bit difficult to interpret.Still, the biggest roadblock in getting through the book is the numerous times the author advertises his website. A quick scan back through gave me no fewer than 15 references to it. One or two would have sent me there... 15 makes me actively avoid it.

Awesome book. A must for early baseball card collectors.