1923 Jersey Ice Cream (W515) Strip Cards Set

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

1923 Jersey Ice Cream (W515) Strip Cards Overview

Two separate sets make up the W515 strip card series. Both have a similar look and design with colored pictures on the fronts and blank backs.

The bottom borders of the baseball cards included the player’s name, team, and position. Both also utilize the same checklist. The second of the two sets (W515-2) is slightly larger than its counterpart.

Most strip cards, by design, are not very attractive. The W515 set, though, tests the limits by fans and is one of the least artful issues among W-Cards.

The entire set includes a total of 120 cards but there’s more than baseball here. A total of 60 baseball players are included the set and the other 60 cards include a variety of other famous personalities, such as boxers.

Like other strip issues, these are fragile cards. That is because they were printed on a low-quality paper stock. These are easily torn or damaged as a result.

Jersey Ice Cream Variation

While the standard cards are the most common, three variations of the cards are known today. The rarest of those is the Jersey Ice Cream variation.

The backs of these cards contained an advertisement for Jersey Ice Cream. Those backs, as shown here, include a mention of receiving five free cards with a brick of Jersey’s Ice Cream product.

These are the rarest of the variations and not many are likely to exist. As you can imagine, these cards are significantly more valuable than the regular W515 strip cards. The most notable one seen to date is an Eddie Collins version that was sold in a 2015 Heritage auction for nearly $500. A standard Collins W515, by comparison, would be about $50-$100 in decent shape.

However, until more of these surface, it will be interesting to see how the hobby treats them. Collectors are wary of pre-war issues with rare back advertisements as they could have been added to the card later as a forgery. These cards are not widespread and until more are discovered could be treated with skepticism, much like the W514 Cruso Peanuts cards were until a second was found.

1923 Jersey Ice Cream (W515) Strip Cards Checklist

Because these cards are scarce, a comprehensive checklist is not known. However, this is the checklist for the standard W515 strip card set and the Jersey Ice Cream cards could theoretically be found on these cards.