1921 W9316 Strip Card Set

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	W9316 Strip
Year	1921
Size	1 1/2″ x 2 7/16″ (but varies by cut)
Images	Color
Type	Strip
Number in Set	10

W9316 Strip Card Overview

The 1921 W9316 strip card set includes only ten cards. The drawings, as with other strip cards, are not aesthetically pleasing. Fronts include color images and player names/card numbers while the backs are blank.

And while there are some Hall of Famers here (four, to be exact), overall, it’s a pretty underwhelming issue without the likes of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and others. Even two of the Hall of Famers weren’t really stars when this set was released. Home Run Baker was at the end of a career when he was passed up by sluggers such as Babe Ruth that were true home run artists. Another, Wilbert Robinson, had long since stopped playing and was then managing.

The set not only had horrible imagery, but also a few typos, despite having only ten cards, as Wally Schang and the aforementioned Robinson both had their names spelled incorrectly.

As is the case with most strip issues, the paper quality of this set is not high and that has led to cards becoming easily damaged. The cards are surprisingly expensive for their low-quality pictures. As they are quite rare, they are generally more than other strip issues with commons sometimes commanding $50 or more, depending on condition. The rarity is easily seen in PSA’s population report as they’ve graded only a few dozen total cards to date.

The set is one of the ugliest pre-war issues of all time.

Wide Printing Variances

These cards are appallingly bad with poorly-drawn players, most of which feature bright red lips as if they were wearing lipstick. The degree to which the red ink shows, however, varies greatly. Some cards exhibit obscenely bright red lips while the red on others is barely noticeable.

Even some of the backgrounds were poorly done with scratches of lines printed on them. Some could be considered variations of a sort as certain players have cards with backgrounds with numerous scratch lines printed onto them and others with completely plain, colored backgrounds.