1928 W502 Strip Card Set

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