1922 W503 Strip Card Set

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Keys For Collectors

• Black and white strip card set issued in 1922 with 64 cards.
• Although Jefferson Burdick cataloged the set as a strip card issue, it was believed to have been issued with caramel candy. (source)
• Lipset said that the cards were issued in “clear plastic wrappers with caramel candy in 1923 in the New York, St. Louis and San Francisco Bay regions” (source)
• Grading companies classify the set as being issued in 1922, but Lew Lipset determined that they were issued in 1923 (source)
• Cards 1-32 and 33-64 have different fonts for the player’s name, and Lipset also believed they were issued in two series.The second series of W503 cards is considered much more challenging to find.
• The set contains 16 HOF’ers, including Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Rogers Hornsby (card misspelled ‘Roger’), among others
• VERY hard to find; PSA has graded a total of only 17 cards, SGC has graded 130

W503 Strip Cards – About As Hard To Find As They Come

I’ve handled and researched many pre-war strip cards and early caramel and gum cards.

But I’ve never had any W503 cards in my possession.

Based on my research, one of the reasons is the limited distribution.

Lew Lipset determined that the cards were only issued in three regions: New York, St Louis, and the San Francisco Bay area.

If you do enough digging on the baseball card forums, you’ll find collectors showcasing some of their W503 cards.

My envy runs DEEP.

Surprisingly, PSA has graded only 17 cards, and SGC has graded 130, although some old-time vintage collectors have preferred SGC to PSA. Even still that puts the graded population at about two cards for each issue in the set.

Ungraded copies can be found on eBay, but the selection is usually limited. Ungraded commons will run a minimum of $100-$125, so for anyone thinking of building the set, that might not be possible.

Speaking of SETS, if we go back to Lew Lipset’s Old Judge website, and look at his old auctions, he did sell an amazing w503 complete set in 2006, for $33,657.

I wonder what that set would fetch today in this market?!

W503 Cards for Sale on eBay