How many W554 complete sets exist

[UKCardGuy]

I achieved a personal collecting milestone this week. With the help of a W554 member (thanks Brian), I bought the last card that I needed to complete the W554 set. That's my first pre-war set sorted. :D

For the past 2 years, I've been chasing W554s. Checking every auction that comes around and alerts in eBay. In that time, I've not seen that many W554s for sale. It got me wondering - how many other complete W554 sets are out there?

I know that the pop reports at the TPG aren't really an accurate proxy. After all, not many people want to spend the money to grade an Eddie Rommel W554. But the absence of other data points, it's all I have.

I've counted the Pop Reports across PSA, SGC and Beckett with the totals below. Only 243 W554s graded. (Personally, about half of my W554s aren't graded.)

If anyone was tempted to grade a W554 it would likely be the Ruth and the Gehrig cards, so I'm guessing those are closer to a full population. If I round up the numbers of Ruth/Gehrig W554s to...I dunno...50. Would that be a fair guestimate as to the total number of Ruth and Gehrig W554s out there?

I'd be interested to know how many members have a full count of W554 cards (or where you are on the journey).

(And because every thread needs a card....)

[Casey2296]

Congrats on completing the set, beautiful cards.

[x2drich2000]

Gary, Congratulations on completing the set. It really is a great set that flies under and doesn't get the credit it deserves. 13 of the 18 cards are HOFers. Other than Ruth and Gehrig, the prices also are generally reasonable. For those liking a challenge, it can also be fun to search out the different Ad backs and name/stock variations.

I've been following the set off and on for the past 10 years or so. I'm currently 1 card away due to being lazy and constantly putting it off (anyone got a Fonseca, preferable with a red ad back?). Since I started following the set I could have put it together at least 3 or 4 times. LOTG sold a set with multiple variations back in 2016 and I know there are a couple other board members who have completed the set.

The odd thing about this set is you will find they tend to come up for sale in groups. You won't find any available for months (other than overpriced Ebay), then all of a sudden you'll find 10-20 pop up. From my experience, Hoyt seems to be the hardest to find for some reason which matches your graded card count.

[UKCardGuy]

Hi DJ. I know what you mean about the cards coming available in waves. It might be that these are set breaks. I've bought some of my cards in 2 different set breaks.

This is the timeline of my W554 pickups since Apr 2020:

Joe Judge SGC10 in April 2020 was my first. Looking back at that auction they had all 18 cards in the set for sale. If I'd bought them all then, I'd have saved myself some money.
That got me started and I added my second, Douglass McWeeney SGC 30 in June 2020.
I found Waite Hoyt on Etsy of all places (SGC40) in Aug 2020. I remember negotiating the price with the seller while I was on vacation with my family.
I picked up Al Simmons (SGC50) from a Net54 member in Sep 2020
I picked up my next 4 in Oct 2020 that were part of a set break.
Cochrane and Pennock in Aug 2021.
Rommel on Ebay in Sep 2021.
Gehrig SGC20 in Oct 2021
Jimmie Foxx (PSA 4) and Lefty Grove (PSA 5) in Nov 2021
Lloyd Waner in Dec 2021 from a Net54 member
Mel Ott from Ebay in Feb 2022. There was a much better one that was listed on Ebay and I just missed it so I've made due with the one I have (but I'll look to upgrade it in time)
Babe Ruth (SGC 45) in Apr 2022
Lefty O'Doul in Apr 2020 from a Net54 member


I agree with you DJ, the Hoyt isn't easy. But I think they've all been pretty few and far between. It's made the set build a bit fun. I've seen a number of the cards for sale just once in the past 2 years. And the rest only twice (at most three times) since Apr 2020.

You never know, I might add some of the ad backs if I see them.

[NiceDocter]

Dont forget theres 2 versions, the sepia and the black and white. One doesnt have the writing on the bottom..... not sure which is rarer.....

[UKCardGuy]

I built my set of the sepia version (with the names printed at the bottom). I can't say categorically, but in my experience the B&W version is rarer. I've seen far fewer of them Personally, I consider the B&W version inferior to the sepia variant. Its a lighter cardstock and without the player name a d team it just seems less like a card to me.

I had a B&W version of Hack Wilson but sold it when I found a Sepia version.

Others like x2drich2000 have been chasing the set for a lot longer than me. Maybe they'll have a view on the relative rarity of the B&W cards.

[x2drich2000]

The B&W versions are definitely more difficult. I would guess probably somewhere around 5-10 Sepia for every 1 B&W. I never had a preference and only have 1 B&W in my set.

[x2drich2000]

The set sold in LOTG had 24 cards with 4 B&W and 2 w/name that were colored closer to B&W than Sepia.

[BabyRuth]

I finished my set around 2 years ago or so - all cards with the names on the bottom - all SGC + PSA graded. As I remember, the Hoyt card was hard for me to find.

[UKCardGuy]

Nice cards Jim. It took me a long while to find Jimmie Foxx.

I just saw this on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275293234011?hash=item4018c1635b:g:CG4AAOSwjzdibDv X

$55K for a W554 Ruth <geesh> Best of luck to him. I'm glad I completed the set when I did. If he manages to get that price, I suppose it'll benchmark my SGC 4.5 to at least $100K :D

[BabyRuth]

Thanks Gary!!!! If you need another project, a nice little set to try is the W553!!!