1948 Bowman Yogi Berra #6 RC

A gum company comes back from the war

Jacob Warren Bowman, a chewing gum salesman, founded Gum, Inc. in Philadelphia in 1927. Its Blony bubble gum became the top-selling penny bubble gum in the country by 1929, and Blony came with trading cards. The company's Play Ball baseball sets ran from 1939 to 1941, until wartime paper rationing stopped production.

The company did not make trading cards again until 1948, now under the Bowman name. Its 1948 baseball set was the first major baseball release after World War II, and collectors who build it say it kicked off the modern era of card collecting.

The set is small in every sense. It has 48 cards, each 2 1/16 by 2 1/2 inches, smaller than later standard cards. The fronts show a black-and-white player photo; the backs give the player's name, card number, a short biography and an advertisement for Blony Bubble Gum. A pack guide cited by the grading service says the cards were sold in one-card, one-cent packs.

The cards were printed on two 36-card sheets. The first held cards 1 through 36; the second repeated 24 of them and swapped 12 for the high numbers, 37 through 48. Those 12 swapped-out cards became short prints. Berra's #6 is not one of them. Half the set's players were New York Giants or Yankees, and six teams were not represented at all.

Lawdie from The Hill

Lawrence Peter Berra was born Lorenzo Pietro Berra on May 12, 1925, in The Hill, an Italian neighborhood of St. Louis. His parents, Pietro and Paolina, were immigrants from Italy, and they called him 'Lawdie.' He grew up across the street from Joe Garagiola, his boyhood best friend and a future major league catcher, and left school after the eighth grade.

The nickname 'Yogi' came from American Legion ball, where a friend said he looked like a yogi when he sat cross-legged waiting to bat. Sources differ on which friend: one credits Jack Maguire, another Bobby Hofman.

In 1942 the hometown Cardinals passed on Berra in favor of Garagiola. Branch Rickey, then running the Cardinals, reportedly wanted to hold Berra for the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he was headed. The Yankees signed Berra first, for the same $500 bonus the Cardinals had offered Garagiola.

Berra joined the Navy in 1943 and served as a gunner's mate on the attack transport USS Bayfield during the Normandy landings, one of a six-man crew on a rocket boat firing at the German defenses on Omaha Beach. He was wounded and awarded a Purple Heart. After his discharge in May 1946 he played for the Newark Bears, where Bill Dickey mentored him, and he debuted with the Yankees on September 22, 1946.

The card and the season, 1948

When the card came out, Berra was a year removed from a World Series title in his second big league season, 1947. He was still splitting time: in 1948 he played 71 games at catcher and 50 in the outfield.

He hit .305 that year with 14 home runs and 98 RBI in 125 games and was named to his first All-Star team, the first of 18 selections. The card shows him at the start of the run, before the five straight titles from 1949 to 1953 and the three MVP awards in 1951, 1954 and 1955.

The year off the field was the dawn of the Cold War and the television age. ABC began broadcasting in April, the Berlin Airlift began in June and Harry Truman upset Thomas Dewey in November. The Cleveland Indians, not the Yankees, won the World Series.

What makes it the Berra card

It is Berra's only rookie card, and his mainstream debut. Collectors note that his 1952 Topps may be the more popular card from his playing days, but the nod as the key goes to the 1948 Bowman. One dealer said years ago that Berra had passed Stan Musial, whose rookie is also in the set, in popularity among 1948 Bowman collectors. The set also holds rookie cards of Warren Spahn and Red Schoendienst.

Condition is the challenge. Centering is the set's main problem, sharp corners are hard to find, and the cards tend to develop a yellow tint. Because they came in one-card packs, wax stains are common.

The grading service's population figures account for more than 2,500 graded copies. The PSA 7 grade tracked on this page has 148 copies, with 155 graded higher. There are 109 PSA 8s, 11 PSA 9s and one PSA 10.

One gem and a widening gap

The lone PSA 10 has its own history. It sold at auction in 2006; one account dates that sale to April 2006, while another reports a price of $33,582.60 in August 2006. In May 2017 it sold again for $192,000, and it has since been reholdered.

PSA 9 copies have climbed sharply. A PSA 9 sold for $113,187 in August 2026, the highest price found for that grade.

Mid-grade copies trade far more often. PSA 7 copies sold at auction for $3,275 in June 2024 and $3,249 in July 2024 (the same certified card, resold), and for $4,560 in May 2026. PSA 8 copies sold for $8,512 in September 2024, $19,800 in summer 2025 and $18,192 in September 2026. Grade still swings the price: a PSA 6 brought $4,088 in April 2026, more than some PSA 7s had.

Ten rings and a museum

Berra played in 14 World Series and won 10, both records. He set Series records for games (75), at-bats (259) and hits (71). He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972 on his second ballot with 85.6 percent of the vote, and the Yankees retired his No. 8 that year, jointly honoring him and Bill Dickey.

His sayings outlived his playing days: 'It ain't over till it's over,' and 'When you come to a fork in the road, take it.' In 1998 the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center opened at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Berra died on September 22, 2015, at 90, in West Caldwell, New Jersey. Two months later President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. Bowman itself did not last as long: Topps bought it out in 1956 for $200,000.

The numbers

1948 season

125 G, 469 AB, 70 R, 143 H, 24 2B, 10 3B, 14 HR, 98 RBI, 25 BB, 24 SO, .305 BA, .341 OBP, .488 SLG. All-Star; 29th in AL MVP voting.

1948 positions

71 games at catcher, 50 in the outfield

1947 season

83 G, 293 AB, 82 H, 11 HR, 54 RBI, .280 BA. World Series champion.

Career (1946-1963, 1965)

2,120 G, 7,555 AB, 2,150 H, 358 HR, 1,430 RBI, .285 BA, .348 OBP, .482 SLG

Honors

AL MVP 1951, 1954, 1955; 18 All-Star selections; 10 World Series titles; Hall of Fame 1972 (85.6%)

Timeline

1. May 12, 1925

   Lorenzo Pietro Berra is born in The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis.

2. 1927

   Jacob Warren Bowman founds Gum, Inc. in Philadelphia.

3. 1942

   The Cardinals pass on Berra in favor of Joe Garagiola.

4. 1943

   Berra joins the Navy.

5. 1944

   Berra serves in the Normandy landings and is wounded, earning a Purple Heart.

6. May 1946

   Berra is honorably discharged and joins the Newark Bears.

7. Sep 22, 1946

   Berra makes his major league debut with the Yankees.

8. 1947

   The Yankees win the World Series in Berra's second season.

9. 1948

   Bowman issues its first baseball set; Berra appears as card #6 and makes his first All-Star team.

10. Jan 26, 1949

    Berra marries Carmen Short.

11. 1951

    Berra wins the first of three American League MVP awards.

12. 1956

    Topps buys out Bowman for $200,000.

13. May 9, 1965

    Berra plays his last major league game, for the Mets.

14. 1972

    Berra is elected to the Hall of Fame; the Yankees retire No. 8.

15. 1998

    The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center opens in New Jersey.

16. 2006

    The only PSA 10 copy of the card sells at auction.

17. Sep 22, 2015

    Berra dies at 90 in West Caldwell, New Jersey.

18. Nov 24, 2015

    Berra is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

19. May 2017

    The PSA 10 sells again for $192,000.

20. Aug 2026

    A PSA 9 sells for $113,187.

The world in 1948

• Feb 21, 1948

  NASCAR is founded at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida.

• Apr 19, 1948

  The ABC television network begins broadcasting.

• May 14, 1948

  The United States recognizes Israel.

• Jun 3, 1948

  The Palomar Observatory telescope is finished in California.

• Jun 24, 1948

  The Berlin Blockade begins, and the U.S. launches the Berlin Airlift.

• Oct 11, 1948

  The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Braves to win the World Series.

• Nov 2, 1948

  Harry Truman defeats Thomas Dewey and Strom Thurmond for president.

• Dec 10, 1948

  The United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 7 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1948 Bowman Yogi Berra #6 RC is number 82 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (23 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Berra's hometown Cardinals passed on him; the Yankees signed him for a $500 bonus.
• Berra was a gunner's mate in the Normandy landings and earned a Purple Heart before he ever played in the majors.
• The 1948 Bowman set left out six teams entirely, including the Red Sox and Tigers, while half its players were Giants or Yankees.
• In 1948 Berra played more games at catcher than in the outfield, but not by much: 71 to 50.
• Berra struck out only 24 times in 469 at-bats in 1948.
• Berra considered suing over the cartoon character Yogi Bear, which first appeared in 1958.
• The only PSA 10 copy of the card sold for $192,000 in 2017, almost six times its price in 2006.