Scarcer/Rarer than.....
 

Is it just me or does it bug other people when someone states that a card
is scarcer/rarer than a T206 Wagner, Cobb/Cobb ect... and they are referring
to a T206 with a non Sweet Caporal or Piedmont back and using the PSA and
SGC pop reports as a reference. I've seen it so many times I decided to
go through the pop reports and get some statistics.

I used the Cobb/Cobb for a comparison. There are 21 of them in the
combined PSA/SGC pop reports. Of the 524 subjects 483 of them have
at least one front/back combo (most have several) with a 20 or less
combined pop making them scarcer/rarer than a Cobb/Cobb in the pop reports.

It averaged out to 4.625 cards per combo for a total of 10,332 cards in
the pop reports that are scarcer than a Cobb/Cobb. And I didn't include
blank backs, Brown Lenox/Old mill, errors (ie nodgrass/Murr'ay), or
factory #'s (PIedmont 42, Sweet Caporal 25 ect..) if you include these
it could be 15,000 or more.

The Cobb (Red Portrait) has 10 combo's alone that are scarcer.

Question
 

How many cobb "Carolina brights" backs are there known?

Interesting illustration, thanks.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to supply & demand.

To add to your point...there may be only 2, 3 or 7 of a particular front/back combo (a common, or even a "standard" HOFer), so clearly "rare"...BUT, the demand & desirability of said card cannot touch that of the Wagner or Cobb/Cobb, etc.

Some guy on eBay has been trying to sell an Exhibit for years with the "Rarer than a Goudey!" tagline. Well sure. And I've sold Leaf exhibits where there were 5 graded and I got $150 for them.

...and I am very happy with my seven Allegehenys

I don't know how many are known but there are 13 total in the
PSA and SGC pop reports, I would imagine at least one or two are cross overs.

I came across a couple of errors that stood out. There is a Burch (Batting)
and a Schaefer (Detroit) listed with American Beauty backs.

The Cobb is an SGC 10 now. And not a crossover as I bought it years ago.


http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...pictureid=4737
http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...pictureid=4738

Steve B

Rarity and scarcity are different, though not unrelated, concepts. Rarity is a numbers in existence thing. However, scarcity is supply versus demand and is generally reflected by financial value. There are many modern 1/1 serial numbered cards that are rarer but not more scarce than the T206 Wagner.

semantics, schlimantics....


'It's only the same if it's not different.

:cool::rolleyes::eek:

There was a great thread a ways back titled something like, "Show A Card More Rare Than The Wagner". Wonderful stuff!

And Ray, it's schlAmantics, not schlImantics :D:p

For value, at the end of the day, it comes down to demand. A whole lot, if not most, of my first collection was rarer than a Wags......They aren't that rare relatively speaking.