Big Heads Strip Cards (W-UNC) Set and Checklist

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Big Heads Strip Cards
Year	1920s
Size	1 3/8″ x 2 1/2″
Images	Color
Type	Strip
Number in Set	20

Big Heads Strip Cards Overview

Jack Dempsey Big Head W529 Strip Card Big Heads Strip Card Leon Cadore The Big Heads strip card set is an unclassified issue featuring colored images of players with larger-sized heads on the front. Backs of the cards in this issue are blank. There are 20 known baseball players and ten boxers. The boxers are also technically classified as W529 issues.

The only words printed on the cards are the player’s names, which appear on the front. Some of the cards have the player’s first and last name while others have only last names.

It’s not just the heads that make the players look odd. The players’ bodies, in general, are just large and bulked up. Most of the players on the cards look closer to football players than they do baseball players.

The set is largely a mystery. It isn’t completely known who produced the cards or even when it was printed. However, as similar boxing cards are known on an uncut sheet from the International Feature Service (IFS), they are likely an IFS issue.

You can see pictures of all of the baseball cards here.

Johnson and Johns(t)on

Collectors should be aware that one of the cards is a star card that can be missed.

One card has the player identified as ‘Johnston’ (pictured). In actuality, the card is almost certainly Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson. That is evident because the player is wearing a Washington Nationals uniform but no player named ‘Johnston’ was on the team at the same time period these cards were issued.

One player, Ed Johnson, was present on the 1920 team. But the card is not likely his for a few reasons.

First, Johnson was a little-known player who appeared in only four games in 1920. Those would be the only games in his major league career. In addition, the picture seems to depict a pitcher and Ed Johnson was an outfielder.

Boxing and W529

Collectors should note that the boxing cards are often grouped as W529 issues as the checklist of boxers included as well as the poses closely resemble cards found in that grouping.

For now, I have added them to the baseball page as well since the design is clearly the same as that of the baseball Big Heads cards.