The 1950s was an era of tremendous growth and change for the baseball card industry. Manufacturers were experimenting with different styles, sizes, and methods of packaging and distributing cards. This led to the creation of some unusual and unconventional baseball card sets from that decade that stood out from the typical release. While the mainstream brands like Topps, Bowman, and Play Ball issued the bulk of cards during this time, several odd and obscure sets also saw the light of day. Let’s take an in-depth look at some of the most unique 1950s baseball card releases.
Perhaps the oddest set from the 1950s was the 1953 Bowman stock issue. That year, Bowman printed and distributed cards without team logos or team names listed on the backs. Instead of Cubs, Giants, or Dodgers, the teams were simply denoted by the city name like “Chicago,” “New York,” or “Brooklyn.” Bowman intended these generic cards to be stock that shops and drugstores could keep on hand all year and sell when demand was high, without needing teams to be identified. Only around 20% of the print run included team names on the reverse, making the stock issue much more scarce and enigmatic to collectors today.
Another strange release was the 1954 Topps Wide Pennant set. That year, Topps issued cards in two different sizes – the standard red backs and also larger 107mm x 64mm cards they called Wide Pennants. The Wide Pennant cards utilized a unique vertical landscape format as opposed to the familiar horizontal layout. The player photos appeared as tall narrow silhouettes and pennant-like flags were printed across the tops. Only 154 player cards were produced in the Wide Pennant format before Topps abandoned the unconventional size. The wide, tall cards stand out noticeably in collections.
In 1953, confectioner Oak Leaves Candy issued a 48-card baseball set as a promotion. The cards featured full color player photos on one side and the Oak Leaves logo and candy bar advertisements on the reverse. Unlike typical manufacturer releases, these cards were not distributed through packs but rather in candy bars and as premiums. They are quite a curiosity today representing one of the very few candy/gum company baseball card issues.
One of the oddest promotions from the 1950s came courtesy of Famous Artists Schools. In 1956, the correspondence art school offered a 92-card complete set as a premium for enrolling in their drawing courses. Produced on high quality card stock, the colorful illustrated portraits and action shots differed dramatically in style compared to snapshot photos used by the trading card companies. The educational tie-in of the artwork-focused Famous Artists Schools distributing baseball cards as an incentive added yet another unusual element to this esoteric set.
In 1957, Abbott Lithographing issued a 26-card salesman’s sample set with unique card sizes ranging from standard to oversized. The most notable aspect was that all cards featured the same photo of Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio. Each card back contained different DiMaggio career stats or fun facts taking up the real estate usually used for player information. The oddly consistent same-photo cards were clearly not intended for sale but rather to demonstrate Abbott’s printing capabilities to potential customers.
The 1950s saw huge printing advances that allowed for novel experimentation in size, design, and distribution of baseball cards beyond the traditional mold. While most odd sets from this era were very low print runs and remain exceedingly rare, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the testing of unconventional ideas that never caught on broadly but still found an audience among some collectors even decades later. The unusual and rare 1950s odd sets help illustrate how the baseball card market was still in its developing stages.
