"The Mystery of the W555s: Strip Cards or E-Card Superset?"

[the 'stache]

There is another aspect of pre-war baseball card collecting that has become apparent to me as a new enthusiast, and I find it highly fascinating. And that is the continuing research and evaluation that goes into the cataloging of baseball card sets. Though Jefferson Burdick first released his landmark system The American Card Catalog in 1960, it has remained remarkably accurate in the fifty plus years that have followed. But sometimes, continued research necessitates a reclassification of sets, and it appears that this is the case with the W555 strip set. So why am I writing this, you may ask? I believe that other hobbyists who are new to the pre-war niche might find it interesting to know not only why baseball card sets are organized the way they are (an understanding of pre-war nomenclature is vital to building any collection), but also that this organization is, in essence, organic. Though the cards were printed, in some cases, nearly 140 years ago, the relationships between how these cards coexist is ever changing. Beyond the historical context of the players depicted, the pieces of cardboard have a story of their own.

After spending twelve months in college not knowing what I wanted to do with my life (a year during which I was declared as an advertising art student), I switched to political science as my major, and began preparing myself for law school. I was one of those idealistic kids that felt one person could really make a difference, and I was completely ignorant of how the system actually worked. It soon became clear that the practice of law was not as intriguing to me as was the in-depth study of legal history. While getting up in front of a courtroom as either a prosecutor or a defense attorney was something that still appealed to the idealist in me, I was at my happiest delving deeply into LexisNexis, or Westlaw. I discovered the joys of precedent case research while taking a course called the American Legal System, which simulated one Supreme Court case for the entire semester. I spent much of that semester delving into case law. Seeing the evolution of laws over time was interesting to me. And until recently, I haven't found anything that intrigued me in that same way.

In the topic title, I referenced an article written in the Fall 2013 issue of Old Cardboard 1. Based on the information available at the time, Burdick included this set of stamp-sized cards under the strip card classification "W". But over time, similarities between the W555 set and 4 other sets emerged, though the four relative sets fell under the "E" classification reserved for candy cards.



The W555 Christy Mathewson, actual size

The comparisons to the four "E" series sets were prophetic, as the discovery of a complete candy box with four of the W555 cards attached confirmed the set's candy card status. The article in Old Cardboard meticulously lays out the four associated sets, player by player, with the W555 cards. The majority of cards employed the same source photography, though the E93, E94, E97 and E98 cards were full color lithographs, and the W555 cards were monochromatic (brown) in nature, and cropped. It took seeing the cards organized in this manner for a light to go off in my head, and I cannot recommend this issue enough to new collectors. It is $10 well spent, as it will "unlock" some of the mysteries of how cards were made in this era.

With that, I will ask the members of our forum to share any comments they might have about this set, or card cataloging in general. And of course, if you have any W555s in your collection, please share them.



1. Adesso, Robert and Hardeman, Lyman. "The Mystery of the W555s: Strip Cards or E-Card Superset?" Old Cardboard Fall 2013: 21-29. Print.