1930's Western Strip Cards

 I know, I know, it's not baseball cards but I like them anyway.

There is a little known western strip card set from the thirties (I believe) that includes one very cool card.  The cards have a smooth surface, almost glossy, and are of a thicker stock than most other strip cards from the twenties. 

The specific card from the set that I really covet is the Jim Thorpe card pictured below.  It shows Thorpe in his traditional Indian head dress and is not a sports related card at all. But, this is a western movies set so why would it be?

This same image is also used on some Exhibit cards in different colors.  I wrote about Thorpe cards here where you can see the Exhibits as well as several other cards of his. The cards are about the same size as other strip cards.  They have a thin color strip at the bottom of the card that matches the background color and the actor's name on the front as well.

I recently picked up three cards from the set and am actively looking for more.  Someday I'll land the Thorpe.  Here are the three that I found so far.

If you have any of these, please let me know, especially if you're willing to let them go.  

I can't find much info about this set anywhere, so I don't know how many cards are in the set or a checklist of cards.  If you have any further info, please share it with me.  

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.

New Pick Up

Hello everyone, I recently picked up a other 1920 W519 Decalco Litho boxing card.

I really like this strip card set of boxing stars and they just don't seem to come up for sale all that often.  So, I'm very happy to pick them up when I can.

This particular example is number 11, Irish Patsey Cline.  I have two other examples from this set, just don't have them scanned at this time.  Here is the Cline I just picked up.

 

I really like the images and colors on these cards.  I've also got a Jack Britton and a Tom Gibbons.  Here is an image of the Jack Britton although it is not my card.

 

 

 

I am a fan of full body poses on prewar cards which is one reason I really like this set.

 

There are twenty cards in the set listed below.

 

1. Jack Dempsey
2. Tom Gibbons
3. Pete Herman
4. Frank Moran
5. Billy Miske
6. Jess Willard
7. Johnny Kilbane
8. Rocky Kansas
9. Young Pal Moore
10. Jack Britton
11. Irish Patsey Cline
12. Ted Lewis
13. Georges Carpentier
14. Bill Brennan
15. Joe Stecher (wrestling)
16. Fred Fulton
17. Soldier Bartfeld
18. Benny Leonard
19. Mike Flamier – Zulu Kid
20. Wladek Zbyszko



There is another related set known as W521 which are essentially the same cards with reverse images. 

Two of the subjects are also not boxers but are rather westlers, Wladek Zbyszko and Joe Stecher.

These are just really nice looking strips in my opinion and I'm have a fun time slowly chipping away at it. 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.

W590 Jack Johnson

One of my collecting friends recently picked up this W590 Jack Johnson.

W590 is a strip card set featuring multiple sports with black and white photos instead of colorized drawings like many other strip sets from the 20's.  The set is dated between 1925 and 1931 with multiple printings between those years.  There are team change variations due to trades and some guys have a description change to their status in their sport. 

Various sports represented in the W590 set

Baseball is the most represented sport in the set with about 40 players represented.  There are also athletes from wrestling, boxing, football, horse racing, tennis, golf, swimming, cycling, a strongman and some non-sport personalities as well.

One of the most sought after cards in the set is the Red Grange football card considered his rookie card.  Also the rookie card of golfer Walter Hagen is in the set. Within the baseball checklist, there are super stars Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Lou Gehrig leading the way.

The complete checklist is not currently complete as just a couple years ago three new boxers were discovered from the set.  It stands to reason there may still be more uncatalogued cards to be found. 


Well, I wanted to highlight the boxing card of Jack Johnson in this post as that is the card my friend was able to pick up.  He ended up getting it for a steal to be honest.  A seller on eBay with zero feedback had it listed as a Buy It Now (BIN) for $25 but nobody pulled the trigger.  Likely due to the zero feedback.  He then relisted it in an auction format starting at $1.00 and my friend placed a little $7.00 snipe on it.  Well, that was enough to win it in the end. 

 

When he got the card in hand, he examined it with a loupe and has determined it to be the real deal.  Even in the low grade it's in, it was a great deal for this fairly hard to find HOF boxer Jack Johnson card. 

It was printed after he lost his championship and it used to say "Ex-Champion" where there is paper loss in front of "Heavyweight" and under where it should say "JACK". 

Well I hope you enjoy the card as much as I do.

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.

Recent Pick Ups

A couple of Rubes joined my collection recently.

I was very happy to have picked up these two W519-1-1s.  These are the black numbered versions of the W519s.  Type II's (W519-2) do not have numbers and are all blue backgrounds.  The W519-1-2s have blue numbers instead of black and are harder to find than the black number type I's. 

First up in Rube Benton who pitched for the NY Giants when this card was produced in 1920.

 

Next up in one of my favorite prewar players, HOFer Rube Marquard who was pitching for the Brooklyn Robins in 1920.

 

 

I hope you like these two new strip cards as much as I do.  The W519s don't show up as often as some of the other strip sets so I was happy to get these two.

 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.



1920 W520 Strip Cards

The 1920 W520 set is one of my favorite strip sets of the twenties.

I wanted to share my W520's with you so here is a little about the set and images of the cards I have so far. 

Strip cards were issued in strips of uncut cards on thick paper.  They were meant to be cut apart by the collector into individual cards and because of this they rarely get a numerical grade by a third party grader.  They are usually labelled as Authentic or Hand Cut. 

Also, due to the nature of being hand cut as opposed to being cut by a machine at the printers shop, they can come with some pretty terrible edges.  Many times you'll find them torn apart and not even cut with scissors. 

The W520 set has twenty cards in it with nineteen players (Zach Wheat is pictured twice).  The first ten cards are portraits (number 10, Benny Kauff, is actually a waist up shot of Benny holding a bat) while the second ten cards are all full body action shots.  The backgrounds are all solid colors.  One of the reasons I like the set so much is because of how colorful it is.  The cards look great all next to each other. 

Here are the cards that I have in the set.  Note that the Zach Wheat portrait is actually a W522.

The W522 set is the exact same set as the W520 except the card numbers start at 31 and go to 50 while the W520 set starts at 1 and goes to 20.  My Wheat is number 33 and is therefore a W522 instead of W520.  I picked it up as a place holder until I can find his matching W520. 

I don't see these cards come up for sale that often so I haven't added any to my collection in quite a while.  I keep my eyes out for them though.  If you have any you would like to sell, please let me know and we'll see if we can work it out. 

Here is a checklist of the W520 set along with the W522 checklist matched up to it.  I borrowed this from Oldcardboard.com.  I highly recommend the site, it's a great place for prewar card lovers.

Card #	Player	W522 Card #
1	Bancroft	40
2	Mathewson	39
3	Larry Doyle	38
4	Jess Barnes	37
5	Fletcher	36
6	Cooper	35
7	Gonzales (Gonzalez)	34
8	Zach Wheat	33
9	Tris Speaker	32
10	Benny Kauff	31
11	Zach Wheat	50
12	Phil Douglas	49
13	Babe Ruth	48
14	Koveleski (Coveleski)	47
15	Goldie Rapp	46
16	Pol Perritt	45
17	Otto Miller	44
18	George Kelly	43
19	Mike Gonzales (Gonzalez)	42
20	Les Nunamaker	41
Enjoy the hobby all...It's a fantastic one.