[Archive]

Posted By: Mark Macrae

The card that you display of Lou Gehrig is from the W-517-2, or W-517 Mini series, although to my knowledge the series has never been thoroughly studied, or accurately documented. The images used in the series are similar to the larger, and more commonly available W-517 large. Besides the size difference, the smaller variety does not contain a number on the front.Dotted lines are visible, many times, on the top or bottom border.... sometimes both, suggesting that they were distributed like the larger set (Intact, in strips), and then cut down by consumers at some point later on. I am aware of a few dozen examples mixed in with other period cards from original collections, outside the hobby, turning up in my region (San Francisco Bay Area) over the last 25 years, so its possible that it was distributed regionally in specific metropolitan areas at around the same time that the larger W-517 set was being distributed. One longtime collector of the W-517 series is Bob Bostoff, of Empire Sports and he would likely be a good source of input. Regarding reprints, its possible to reprint anything with current technology, but the stock of paper, as well as the printing technique will be considerably different, and any person with experience collecting cards from this era, should be able to spot the inconsistancy relatively easy......I disagree with the pricing structure assigned in the Standard Catalog, as my own experiences dealing with these cards has shown a pricing structure slightly elevated over levels of the W-517 large series