1928 w502

[Al C.risafulli]

Unfortunately nobody knows who made these, at this point. I've had on my to do list for YEARS to dig into it, as that information is certainly discoverable.

It's funny because we have a W502 Ruth in our upcoming auction and in the description I actually mentioned this - despite the cards being "W" cards and labeled by the grading companies as "hand cut," they most certainly are machine cut. This is not the only set where the grading companies include the confusing and inaccurate "hand cut" designation on their flip, and despite all logic and 20+ years of being in business, they continue to do it.

Anyway, after spending an inordinate amount of time on these cards some years ago, I had a few speculative ideas about their origin (my opinion on this is worth what you paid for it, so please bear that in mind). I think they were probably similar to other issues that were produced by a company and marketed to small businesses for use as a promotion - in this case, probably sporting goods retailers - as opposed to being produced by one single company (hence the reason there is no advertising message on these cards). UNLIKE, say, the far more sophisticated Mendelssohn cards or blank-backed E121 cards that could contain printed advertising backs, the W502s are far more crude.

The back printing, at its most basic, gives you four possible baseball outcomes: single, double, triple, or home run. About half the backs are blank. This leaves the possibility that youngsters could use these cards to play a game by turning the cards over (half the time you're out, but half the time you get a hit - not bad).

However, the double, triple, and home run cards also contained a redemption offer where you could bring the card in and receive a baseball in return. These cards are far more scarce than the "one bagger" or blank backs.

For the more, um, [I]detail-oriented among us, the printed text on the reverse includes some variations, and can also be found oriented bottom-to-top and top-to-bottom. But who among us concerns ourselves with such trivialities?

-Al

Edited to add: to Todd's point, the 1931 cards are CONSIDERABLY more scarce than the 1928.