w555s, let's try it again

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Posted By: jay behrens

Let's try this w555 thread again. There was a lot of good info there. Let's get it going again. I can't contribute anything worthwhile becuase I've never owned one and don't know much about the set.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

[Archive]

Posted By: Scott M

I'll take a crack at summarizing the previous thread and maybe this will allow others to chime in with their opinions on the set.

The original poster had asked about the sets significance as containing what some could consider Ty Cobbs rookie card if they accept a 1907 date for the set.

One of the responders rightfully pointed out that 1909 is now the more generally accepted issue date for this set and it would appear that it may have been issued across more than one year.

From there, the discussion went into the general merits of the set with many lamenting its awkward size and general butt ugliness due to the sets lack of color.

A few of the responses (including my own) countered with the opinion that the set is underrated at least from a price perspective. The cards are inexpensive and contain most of the stars from the era. It is one of the few issues where a Cobb or Wagner can still be had for a reasonable sum.

I also pointed out that, for caramel card collectors, the fact that W555 shares poses from the E93,E94,E97 and E98 sets makes the tie into those sets and speculation as to what exactly the origins of W555 interesting.

Rhys offered the opinion that he felt that W555s were the flaps of some type of packaging (candy or otherwise.

I seconded this thought by noting that whenever I've seen a W555 with large borders that hasn't been cut down, it seems to always have at least one or two rounded corners which are not rounded because of wear.

One last thing that I noted as what I thought was a plus of the issue is that there are still discoveries out there to be made.

Lew Lipset put together a checklist of the cards in his Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards which mapped W555 poses with the caramel issues in which they could be found and noted that there were several poses that are likely which weren't catalogued at that time.

He was certainly correct as I am aware of at least 1 or 2 poses from E94 which have recently been uncovered.

The ability to still find new cards in an old issue like this makes the set appealing to me even if it isn't so asthetically appealing.

Scott

p.s. - I have several doubles in this set and am looking for anyone that might be interested in trading.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Scott: does your experience bear out the nine set rarities that Lew speculated about? I guess any newer discoveries would be added to that rarities list. Which cards are these?

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Posted By: Scott M

Hi Gil,

Yes, Mr. Lipsets book was dead on as far as the toughies in the set because my want list (which is buried on the BST somewhere) includes just about all of the ones that he noted as tough.

Scott

[Archive]

Posted By: robert a

Lipset mentions a Jimmy Collins Philadelphia W555 that would date the set at 1908, but also Mowrey St. Louis which would date the set at 1910.

I think this set might've been issued over a few different years.


Rob