CJ 14s: No Combined SGC/PSA Pop Report?

[GregMitch34]

With the Cracker Jack 14s surging in prices based largely on perceived scarcity of certain cards (most of them commons) I wonder if anyone recently has combined the two main pop reports for a true picture on all the cards?

[GregMitch34]

OK, so no one has ever done this, i guess. Maybe, since I asked, I should...

It's funny, certain cards are quite scarce at PSA and rather average at SGC. One wonders why. Though pricing, as we see in current surge for more "scarce" cards, usually based on PSA. One would think it would be worth it to get PSA to holder the SGC cards, unless fear of downgrade. Is PSA less forgiving for caramel, for example?

[rainier2004]

OK, so no one has ever done this, i guess. Maybe, since I asked, I should...

It's funny, certain cards are quite scarce at PSA and rather average at SGC. One wonders why. Though pricing, as we see in current surge for more "scarce" cards, usually based on PSA. One would think it would be worth it to get PSA to holder the SGC cards, unless fear of downgrade. Is PSA less forgiving for caramel, for example?

SGC is typically more forgiving with caramel stains on CJs which rings more evident with the 1914 set as they are almost all stained.

[JasonD08]

PSA is more forgiving on Cracker Jacks. I had many SGC 40s that looked like of my past PSA 4as and 5s.

Jason

[GregMitch34]

Funny--SGC "more forgiving," or is it PSA???? Have at it, boys.

[btkpath]

Assembling a combined SGC and PSA population report was the first thing that I did when I started to collect the set. My chart is several years old, though.

It helped tremendously to provide me perspective regarding the rarity of cards. At the time, I separated the cards into several categories.....those with populations of 15 and under (buy at any price, in any condition, whenever a card came up for sale), those with populations between 16 and 20 (high priority....may not see for sale again anytime soon), those with populations between 21 and 30, and those with populations greater than 30 (no rush to buy.....would probably see for sale again soon). (remember, these cutoffs were based off populations almost 5 years ago).

I was then able to gauge how much I wanted to spend, based on the likelihood of seeing another one for sale sometime soon. I would be more prone to overspend on a card that I would not see again anytime soon, and be more frugal (or pass) on a card that would be up for sale again next week or next month.

The other aspect that it gave me an appreciation for was the distribution of grades for a particular card that I needed. At the time, the Keating card had a very low population AND many of the graded cards were grade 4 and above. Therefore, I knew that the likelihood of finding a "collector's grade" Keating was even lower than its low population would have dictated.

If you are seriously collecting the set, I think it is imperative to take an afternoon and come up with this chart.

I hope this helps!

[Sean1125]

Funny--SGC "more forgiving," or is it PSA???? Have at it, boys.

Certain issues PSA is more forgiving (read - inconsistent).
Certain issues SGC is more forgiving (read - inconsistent).

Please remember these are grading companies opinions and nothing more.

Certain graders believe certain qualities and/or damage should be graded differently. It shows.

[wolterse]

I completed this recently. I combined the psa and sgc population reports. I included the Charlie sheen collection as well as the psa qualifiers into the total number for each grade. Here are the top five scarcest cards:

Hick cady - 16
Burt shotten - 17
Ray Keating - 18
Beals Becker - 18
Del Pratt - 19

I believe there has been a surge in the number of Pratts to hit the market recently which now makes it the fifth rarest card. Yet it remains highly desirable because it only shows up in the 1914 set. In that case, it may still be the most sought after CJ card aside from the 14 Matty.

The Low pop on the Becker explains the recent valuation on the card sold in the love of the game.

31 cards or 21% of the set have a combined pop at or below 25. I predict that These cards will reach astronomical levels in the next year+ due to the influx of new 14 CJ collectors in the market. In fact each of the cards that have been commented upon in recent posts as having inexplicably high prices paid on them all fall into this 21%.

I also thought it was interesting to note that the card with the highest total population was Cobb with 106. This is 28% higher than the card with the next highest pop (Johnson)!!! That is simply incredible and shows just how popular Cobb was in this era even among the other elites.

[GregMitch34]

In separate thread I just posted full combined pop report for all cards, ranked in order...