Uncut Sheets of 1950 Bowman Football Cards
The pictures below show how uncut sheets of 1950 Bowman football cards were configured. I modeled them after real uncut sheets that appeared a few years ago in a Lelands auction. There are 144 cards in the 1950 Bowman set, and they were printed on four sheets of 36. Though only two of the four sheets appeared in the auction, it is easy to see what the other two sheets must have looked like.
If you hold your cursor above any of the cards below, your browser should show you the name of the player and the number of the card. Clicking on a card will bring up the full-sized scan. (A real uncut sheet would not have lines between the cards--that's an effect of scanning them individually.)
The first sheet, one of the sheets in the auction, held cards numbered 1 through 36. It looked like this:
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This table shows how the cards were arranged by number on the first sheet:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 |
Following the pattern of the first sheet, it's logical that the second sheet held cards numbered 37 through 72. It looked like this:
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And it was numbered like this:
| 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 |
| 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 |
| 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 |
| 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 |
Continuing the pattern, sheet three would have held cards numbered 73 through 108:
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And it was numbered like this:
| 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
| 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 |
| 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 |
| 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 |
Finally, sheet four, which was in the auction, held cards numbered 109 through 144. It looked like this:
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And it was numbered like this:
| 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 |
| 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 |
| 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 |
| 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 |
Judging by PSA's population report, compared to the first two sheets, Bowman printed slightly fewer copies of the fourth sheet, and slightly more of the third sheet. The fourth sheet contains a lot of the tougher commons, and the third sheet contains a lot of the easier ones.
Also, you can see on all of the sheets that Bowman grouped teammates together, mostly in threes. Some of the cards in the set--47, if my count is correct--are oriented horizontally, but I don't see a pattern as to where the horizontal cards were placed on the sheets. I guess the company decided on a card-by-card basis which ones would look better horizontally.
For more virtual uncut sheets, see the Gallery's master uncut sheet page.