Contact Us

The W514 set is probably the most popular of all of the strip card sets.  It’s not hard to see why and this week, we’re offering a pretty rare opportunity to accumulate more than half of the entire set. Strip cards were usually distributed as a promotion with the purchase of candy at drug or grocery stores.  They could be purchased in full strips of ten but with perforated lines separating the cards, kids were encouraged to cut them into singles.  The backs are blank.  All of the cards we’re offering have been authenticated by PSA.

The entire set had 120 cards measuring approximately 1 7/16” x 2 ½”.  It is one of the earliest and largest of the strip card issues. While the drawings of the players are sometimes kind of crude and the quality of the cards themselves lean more toward thin paper than cardboard, there’s no denying the star power or the affordability of the W514. W514s were issued in 1919, the year of the famed ‘Black Sox Scandal’ and there are several members of that team in this set including Joe Jackson.  We have several Black Sox among the 65 cards up for bid including Jackson, Buck Weaver, Swede Risberg, Lefty Williams, Eddie Cicotte,  manager Kid Gleason and others.  

The W514 is Shoeless Joe’s only strip card and one of only a small number of cards that were actually issued during the prime of his career.  The fact that this one was distributed during the famous scandal makes it among the more important Jackson cards produced, although the end values often don’t reflect that fact. There are 28 Hall of Famers in the set and you’ll find many of them among our listings,  including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Christy Mathewson and Nap Lajoie. All of these came out of a terrific vintage collection in Utah and are among hundreds of new listings we have up on eBay.  Bidding closes Sunday night.