W503....strip card or caramel card?

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Posted By: leon

Just filled this hole in my W's. I really never collected them until I ran out of (most) of the other stuff I need. Aren't these a caramel issue? I know there are some neat poses. Anyone out there collect the set? regards

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Posted By: Mark Macrae

Leon.... This is an example of an early categorization error. These cards were sold with caramel in a few parts of the country. Buck Barker had quite a few that he remembered getting in the St Louis area & John Spalding bought a sizeable group about 25 years ago from an original collector that lived here in the Bay Area his entire life. Over the last 30+ years, I've stumbled across samplings in original Bay Area collections, maybe 75 or so, which support John's story. I seem to recall John writing an article on these many years ago. I would think that the lack of advertising present on the card would lead the earlier collectors to place it among several 'annonymous issued' W cards. It's possible that it could have been a 'stock set', but as far as the Bay Area roots are concerned, it's an E-UNC.

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Posted By: Anonymous

Leon,

These are actually caramel cards. They were originally issued in some sort of caramel issue and were later miscatagorized by Burdick.

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Posted By: Brad

Are this cards hand-cut from a sheet? I've wonder about this set, but never like "W" strip cards!?

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Posted By: Anonymous

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Posted By: paulstratton

I have always liked these because they don't have the same old player poses, most are unique to the player. They aren't cheap or easy to find either. Nice pickups.

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Posted By: Anonymous

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Posted By: brianp-beme

I would like to contribute in a small way on what Mark M. mentioned about where these W503 cards have been 'discovered' in various finds over the years. About five years ago a seller on ebay was auctioning off, one by one, a collection of 100's of 1920's and 1930's Zeenuts that came from a relative of the original Bay Area collector who had taped them into an album. Besides the Zeenuts, the only other cards offered were, interestingly enough, about 25 Tattoo Orbit cards and about half the set of the W503's.

A great thing about original collections like this one is how they can help pinpoint the geographical distribution of such mysterious issues such as the W503's.

And by the way, no W503 I have ever seen appears to have been hand-cut. They all seem to have a very uniform size. And the pictures are so sharp...in that great batting shot of Heinie Groh card that Leon shared, if you look close you can clearly see the vein bulging from Heinie's neck.

Brian