One of the more popular of the "W" cards, the W517 strip cards are found in 2 types. Both sets were made by the Exhibit Supply Co. of Chicago, but have no mention of this on the cards themselves.
The W517-1 Large Strip Cards are the more common of the 2 types. The Large cards are roughly 3" by 4" in size, numbered within the photo on front and are usually found in a sepia color, but other colors like B&W, blue, purple, green, and red do exist, with green and red the scarcest. The Large W517-1 cards were originally sold in virtical strips of 3 in a box that said "Champion Draw". Some strips/cards will have a color bar at the bottom of the back (prize), and some have game plays printed at the top ie. "Strike Out". Two cards can be found without a number on front (Vance, P.Waner) and are fairly rare compared to the numbered cards. There are 54 cards in the set.
The W517-2 Mini Strip Cards are far scarcer of the 2 types. The Mini cards are roughly 1.75" by 2.75" in size, are unnumbered and come in many different brighter colors. The Mini W517-2 cards were also originally sold in vertical strips, but also seen in a slightly smoother stock 4 photos per postcard size card similar to an Exhibit card, these are almost always found cut into individual cards as well. The rare postcards (est. 5 different known) are listed in some catalogs as "1929" but there is proof they were issued ca.1931. There are 54 different cards in the W517-1 Large set, but only 16 different have been seen in the W517-2 Mini form (Cochrane, Collins, Critz, Donahue, Gehrig, Grove, Jackson, Judge, Kamm, Kelly, Klein, Miller, O'Doul, Shire, Vance, P.Waner). |
