1931 W517 Strip Card Set

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w517-ruth
w517-back

Fast Facts

Year(s) Issued: 1931
Number Cards:  54
Set Designation: W517-1 (Standard Size), W517-2 (Mini)
Card Size: 3″ x 4″ (1.75″ x 2.75″ for Mini version)
Scarcity Rating: (1 to 10, 10 scarcest):  6
Common Card Value (Good Condition): $25

Full W517 Checklist

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Keys For Collectors

  • This fifty-four-card strip set is chock full of stars and features two Babe Ruth cards.
  • Player name, team, league and card number appear on the front.
  • The Set was distributed in vertical strips of three cards with dotted lines on the borders.
  • Bit of a rarity with early strip cards in that it features actual photos instead of crude drawings.
  • The mini version is much scarcer than the base size card and tends to sell for 4x-6x the base versions.
  • Cards were also printed with different baseball plays (such as ‘Strike Out’) at the top and are scarcer.
  • Sepia is the standard color, although other color tints exist (including blue and yellow)
  • Two different sizes were produced, and the base version is larger than the typical strip issues.
  • There are more fake W517s in circulation than actual cards, so beware. (More on this below.)

W517 Summary

I love the look of the W517 strip cards as they remove some of the crude artwork from prior years’ strips and provide a full-size photo strip card.  Card #20 of the ‘Babe’ showcases the stern side of Ruth, while the set includes a whole host of Hall of Famers, including two Ruth cards, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Eddie Collins, and more.

The production of these cards included a smaller version and various color variations,