W600 Population

[bobbvc]

I know there are a few W600 collectors here. Wondering if there is any published data on numbers in existense, both by individual player and team. My non scientific methods lead me to believe the Cubs must have gotten a lot of requests. What do others think most popular/ least popular teams were?

[sb1]

Bob,

No published data on populations, nor even an accurate checklist of whom actually exists to be collected. The various checklist's mostly compiled by going thru all of the Sporting Life Newspapers to see who was offered and when is also incomplete as to poses/positions/teams. As with many issues of this era I would say the Athletics are fairly easy to find, save for perhaps C. Mack who was obviously not ordered much being the Manager and not a player of the day.

[Seiklis]

Here's a good start on who exists and who doesn't. Combined with the pop reports, that covers most of the W600s I've seen before

http://www.oldcardboard.com/w/w600/w600gal1.asp

[bigfanNY]

Having attended shows and collected NY highlanders/Yankees for 40 years I cast my vote for the Highlanders being on the low end of W600's ordered. having said that It was possible in 1905 to order a W600 of Louis Laroy (Leroy) a little known native american pitcher who like Jim thorpe went to the Carlisle school Boston tried to sign him in 1899 but were told that since he was the property of the US government he could not sign a contract. (He was 20 years old at that time) He was on my wantlist but I did not belive I would ever see one never mind own one.. But someone did order that card and kept it in its original envelope and it is no longer on my wantlist. so there are quite a few W600's that defy logic..

[sb1]

Nice pick up on the Laroy(Leroy), if you ever decide to part with it I am very interested.

There are a multitude of players that only played for a fleeting instant yet made the W600 offering, Louis Castro is just one that pops to mind. Some of these "no namers" are very tough to find. The HOFers are usually easier but in much more demand AND they were offered for several years. Also, there are many many players that only appear on the W600 issue as they were either not good enough or started to late to make the E107 issue, or were out of baseball by 1908/1909 when the myriad of T & E card sets began.

As a "set" that was offered by mail order and you picked who you wanted, the population extant of any one player will be impossible to predict. If there were a Topps or T206 issue we would be able to extrapolate some kind of survival rate for each player. Not possible when the general public was free to pick and choose whom they wanted.

[bobbvc]

Thanks for the replies! There are some interesting stories surrounding this set. The Oldcardboard checklist has grown since I've seen it last. At this stage I'm only trying to get as many Pittsburg players as possible. That said, I've been looking for Lobert for years and would like to pick up Selbach one of these days.

[jerrys]

In 1907 Sporting Life advertised to sell a Cabinet Card of Louis Laroy; there was no team associated with his name. That name did not exist in baseball-reference therefore it was not included on the original SLC checklist. The correction was subsequently made.

A similar problem exists for a 1909 offering of a SLC of Charles Cronin. No information has been found; perhaps a misspelling also.

Bob, the addition of the MT (mount type – 4 types) makes the checklist longer but the number of players & manages are the same.

[bigfanNY]

I looked at my most recent W600 checklist and Jerry is correct it dose list the Laroy (Leroy) but with no team listed. I can assure you that the team is in fact NY american. It was almost an accident that I purchased the Cabinet in about 1978 a dealer purchased a lot of W600's in their original glasine envelopes I was offered one hall of famer and a common. My Dad quickly picked a Delahanty in street cloths and I grabbed the Laroy having recently made a list of NY Highlander players (I think it it was 158?) My Dad has sold his Delahanty but I have held onto Laroy because I thought how many people picked this one card over all those big names? Might be only ONE