Presented here is an incredble 1948 Bowman Baseball complete set almost entirely autographed by each player. Of the 48 cards in the set, 42 have added beautiful, high-grade signatures over their black and white images. The only six cards not signed are commons: #22 Bevins, #29 Page, #34 Jones, #35 Stirnweiss, #43 Edwards and #46 Wehmeier. Key Hall of Fame rookies in Bowman's first baseball card issue include #36 Stan Musial, #6 Yogi Berra, #18 Warren Spahn, #8 Phil Rizzuto, #3 Ralph Kiner, #38 Red Schoendienst and #17 Enos Slaughter (unofficially). Musial and Spahn are graded NM-MT 8 by PSA/DNA. Kiner is a perfect PSA/DNA Gem-Mint 10! The rest are encapsulated in "Authentic" holders. 40 cards are slabbed by PSA/DNA and two by Beckett (still in process of being encapsulated): Berra (8/10) and #48 Dave Koslo RC. Most autographs come in either blue or black ink, with #4 Johnny Mize (HOF), #11 Johnny Lindell and Dutch Leonard in felt-tip pen. Three are inscribed: Koslo, Henrich and Verban. Signatures range 7.5-10 in strength and eye appeal, averaging a strong 8.5-9/10 in our humble opinion. Bob Feller is another notable Hall of Famer who has signed (7.5/10).
In terms of condition, the cards themselves average EX overall, with some low-grade and some high-grade examples. Here's our condition breakdown: #1 Elliott RC (Ex), 2 Blackwell (Ex-Mt), 3 Kiner RC (Ex), 4 Mize (Ex), 5 Feller (Gd), 6 Berra RC (Ex), 7 Reiser SP (Gd), 8 Rizzuto RC (Gd), 12 Sain RC (Ex), 14 Reynolds RC (Ex), 17 Slaughter RC (Ex-Mt), 18 Spahn RC (Vg-Ex), 19 Henrich (Nr/Mt), 22 Bevens SP (Ex-Mt), 26 Shea SP (Vg-Ex), 29 Page SP (Ex), 30 Lockman SP (Vg-Ex), 36 Musial RC (Vg), 38 Schoendienst RC (Ex), 40 Marion RC (Ex), 45 Sauer RC (Ex-Mt), 47 Thomson RC (Ex-Mt) and 48 Koslo RC (Ex). Almost all of these guys are now deceased, which adds to the difficulty of completing an autographed set as comprehensive as this. Simply put, you will not find a better '48 Bowman signed set in the market. Hard to imagine any 1940's or 50's set on par with this one in terms of both card condition and autograph quality.