1928 W502 Strip Card Set
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Fast Facts
Year(s) Issued: 1928
Number Cards: 60
Set Designation: W502
Card Size: 1-3/8″ x 2-1/2″
Scarcity Rating: (1 to 10, 10 scarcest): 7
Common Card Value (Good Condition): $20
Keys For Collectors
- Black and white strip card set issued in 1928 with 60 cards.
- Cards feature a card number in parentheses next to the player’s name
- Most cards were issued with either blank backs, but some have text stamps saying ‘one bagger’, ‘two-bagger’, ‘three-bagger’, or ‘home run.’
- The cards are considered a part of some game, although the details on the game are unclear.
- Like many other early strip card issues, the set is identical to other card issues from the era–the F50 and E210 York Caramel sets.
- Of the 60 cards, a lot of star power, including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, and Grover Alexander, among others
- Many have speculated that these cards were not hand cut (like most strip cards), given the consistent cuts (source)
- Relatively scarce; PSA has graded a total of only ~400 cards
W502 Strip Cards- The Backs Play A Game, But What Were They Playing?
Like most other pre-war strip card issues, the 1928 W502 Strip Card set was released by an anonymous issuer.
Most strip cards from the ’20s and ’30s were released with blank backs.
However, the W502 set has a bit of a different twist.
Cataloged as ‘Baseball Photos’ and with ‘Game on Back’ by Jefferson Burdick in the American Card Catalog, the consensus is that the W502 cards were part of some sort of game, even possibly with some sort of trade-in program.
While most W502 cards were issued with a blank back, some were issued with ink writing on the back.
Here are all of the known printed cardbacks:

One Bagger W502 Back
One Bagger – Hold What You Got Back W502 Back
Home Run – Return To Storekeeper W502 Back
Three Bagger Return For Sponge Baseball W502 BAck
Three Bagger W502 Back
Two Bagger W502 Back
The problem here is that we really don’t have a definitive answer as to what the writing on the back meant.
It sure seems there was some prize exchange, given the text on some backs that says ‘Return to Storekeeper and Exchange for a Sponge Base Ball’ or ‘Base Ball’.
I wonder if any kids traded in their Cobb or Ruth cards for a sponge baseball?
One interesting note is that the writing on the back is inconsistent and has varying directions, making the number of back variations quite significant.
In addition, there is a very closely related 1931 W502 Set, which is similar in size (60 cards) but has 19 different cards.
This excellent writeup on the Old Cardboard website discusses the differences between the 1928 and 1931 W502 sets.
W502 Cards for Sale on eBay
1928 W502 #4 Red Faber Chicago White Sox PSA 4 VGEX
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1928 W502 #8 Herb Pennock New York Yankees HOF PSA 5 ***ONE BAGGER***
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1928 w502 #10 Joe Sewell Cleveland Indians HOF SGC 4 ***BLANK BACK***
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1928 W502 #23 RAY SCHALK Chicago Whitesox HOF SGC 4 ***ONE BAGGER BACK***
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1928 W502 #8 Herb Pennock Yankees HOF SGC 4 ***ONE BAGGER Hold What You Got***
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1928 w502 #28 Tris Speaker Cleveland Indians HOF SGC 1.5 ***Blank Back***
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1928 W502 Pie Traynor Pittsburgh Pirates #14 ⭐️💥🎯 SGC Graded 1.5 Hand Cut
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1928 W502 #28 Tris Speaker PSA 1 **Hand Cut HOF All Time Great**
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1928 W502 #33 EUGENE HARGRAVE HAND CUT "ONE BAGGER" SGC 1
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1928 W502 STRIP CARD HAND CUT BLANK BACK #6 BABE RUTH PSA 4
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1928 W502 STRIP CARD #27 TY COBB PSA 5
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1928 W502 #12 Bob O'Farrell - PSA 5, POP 1- only 1 Higher
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1928 W502 #59 Lloyd Waner Pittsburgh Pirates SGC 60 EX 5
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1928 W502 #29 George Burns Philadelphia Phillies SGC 60 EX 5
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1928 W502 #32 Max Carey Brooklyn Dodgers SGC 60 EX 5
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1928 W502 #19 HOF Dave Bancroft
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1928 W502 CLARENCE MITCHELL Good
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Earl Combs 1928 Yuengling's Ice Cream Baseball #21 PSA 2
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1928 W502 (3) card lot- Holepunched ** Hack Wilson, Bill Terry, Herb Pennock **
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1928 W502 #18 Adolfo Luque - PSA 3
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