W551 Ruth - Status in the Hobby

[Exhibitman]

Adding one more (an uncatalogued playing card set) to the mix:



I like most of the strip sets where the players look like themselves. There are a few that are just butt-ugly, like W512. They were (are?) a great alternative if you want a career-issued card of a player whose mainstream cards are unaffordable. Some look pretty good, I think:



As for the Universal Surprise Box card:



I am on the fence as to whether they are strip cards. The stock seems a little thick for that.

Strips aren't even the most 'card adjacent' things you can collect:



Anyone got any signed strip cards to show? I have one:

[ValKehl]

I suspect that the most highly coveted and most highly valued W551 card of Babe Ruth is one with the back shown below. There is only one example in the pop reports (a SGC 1.5), and I wish I had it!

[Svabinsky78]

There are some strip cards that are just plain ugly, like the 1920s Ws (516s, 519s, 520s, 522s)....yeah they have HOFer rookies....i.e., Frankie Frisch and Coveleski, but I can't get over how crude they look....the earliest Frisch and Coveleski I have are from the 21 Exhibits....I just can't get myself to buy their rookies because I can't stand how they look.....

But some strip cards look terrific IMO..the W514s, 1923 W515s, the W551s and others....I own some because I love the way they look (remind me of comic strips) and I don't care that thr mainstream of the hobby finds them mehhhhh.

I think they are terrific examples of the varied landscape of baseball cards that existed before Goudey, Bowman, and Topps eventually came on the scene and monopolized everything. The card does not need to be iconic to be a conversation piece. A lot of these strip a cards are so unique that they don't need status to get a conversation going.

[Exhibitman]

Those bread backs are brutal. Lucky to get one.