The W514 was a series of baseball cards produced by American Caramel in 1909 and 1910 as promotion for their caramel candies. The set included 133 individual cards featuring players and managers from both the National and American Leagues. What makes the W514 set particularly notable and valuable among vintage baseball card collectors is the rarity of high grade specimens surviving over a century later.
American Caramel started packaging these collectible cards inside their product packaging as a way to help promote and boost sales of their candies. The company would include one or a few cards at random inside candy boxes, tins, or bags. This packaging method led to very inconsistent production numbers for each individual card issue. Some players received wide distribution while others are notably scarce today due to lower print runs. Being included loose inside candy meant the photos and images were subject to wear and damage from the packaging and distribution process.
Surviving high grade specimens from the set in excess of a VG-EX condition are scarce amongst today’s collectors. Issues like Ted Breitenstein, Frank Smith, and Jim Delahanty are particularly rare to find grading above a Good condition. Most known examples have problems like creases, stains, or flaws from being handled and tossed loose inside candies over 100 years ago. PSA and SGC currently have listings showing populations under five total submissions for some of the tougher W514 issues, indicating their elusiveness amongst today’s market.
While lower grade copies can still be found with a diligent search, problem-free VG+ examples or better have become extremely valuable to advance collectors seeking to upgrade. In the last several years, high quality W514 issues like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Cy Young have reached prices upwards of $5,000 USD in auction when they surface. Even more common players without extensive Hall of Fame careers can fetch hundreds if in pristine NM-MT condition due to their overall scarcity surviving intact for over a century.
Comprehensive high grade sets have become nearly impossible to assemble after all these years, with condition sensitive issues often not resurfacing for several years between discoveries. The longest-running and most prominent annual vintage card show, the National Sports Collectors Convention, still sees new finds emerge each summer. The regularity and quality of these finds has consistently waned with each passing decade as more material disintegrates or degrades in condition over time.
Beyond its antiquity in being one of the first widely distributed baseball card promotions, the W514 set also helps historians learn more about the early years of professional baseball itself. Dozens of obscure players are featured who had short careers that are only documented statistically today, with the cards providing one of the only visuals to exist of them. The set captured both the American and National Leagues of 1909-1910 when legendary franchises like the Boston Doves, Brooklyn Superbas, Pittsburgh Pirates and others were still active competitors. Many teams folded or consolidated in subsequent years such that their W514 players stand as the sole footage that remains.
When high quality specimens do surface, they prompt intense bidding wars between the most avid vintage collectors. In January 2015, a PSA NM-MT 8 copy of NAP Lajoie from the set was sold for over $18,000 USD through an online auction. Just this past summer (2022), a similar scarce player – Hugh Bedient – surfaced in similar pristine condition and sold for $16,800. Without question, as time goes on and as fewer high grade survivors remain, values will continue escalating dramatically for elite condition W514s that capture a pivotal early chapter of baseball’s storied history before the decades of wear took their toll. Condition sensitive sets like these will also likely never be fully completed at the top end, adding further numeric scarcity premiums to each new find.
The historic American Caramel W514 baseball card set from 1909-1910 holds an invaluable place within the collecting community. Not only are these early card promotions fascinating artifacts from over a century ago, but the rarity of intact high grade specimens makes discovery of each new find very exciting. They prompt bidding showdowns between the most diehard collectors pursuing the earliest chronicles of baseball card history still obtainable today before time fades all evidence. While low quality survivors are still amenable for beginners, optimum quality W514s have become true trophies showcasing the earliest sports cards mass produced in America. Their scarcity ensures significant premiums will continue as hobby interest grows in the coming decades.
