...More Bowman Heritage today.
Topps again did some skipping around with the year for the design. In fact, they used a design that never made it into production for Bowman.
Topps bought out Bowman prior to the 1956 season, eliminating their competition and creating a monopoly they would hold on to until 1981. But before Bowman was sold, they were already working on their 1956 design.
I borrowed some pictures from the REA site. The prototype items were sold in auction for $10,440 to Keith Olbermann in the spring of 2005.
The 2003 Bowman Heritage set consists of 300 cards. The set is split into three pieces, with each based on one of the three 1956 prototype designs.
These are the active veteran, numbers 1-160. The Cubs had a decent showing, with nine out of 160.
The next ten cards featured players that had their debut in 2002 and were double player cards. The Cubs didn't land anyone in that subset. I'm showing the Harden (he did end up with the Cubs) card so you can see what they looked like.
The rookies were featured in cards 180-300 and then knothole design was used for them. This is my favorite of the three designs. If Bowman survived into 1956 and you were running the company, which design would you have picked?
I think the knothole design is creative. But, I also believe Topps would have latched onto this design like '87 Topps and beat it to death in archives and silver packs.
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