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Does anyone know where, if anywhere, to find total print runs of various pre-war sets. Aside from the grading company populations, I want to see the actual population estimates for all cards produced. Just a curiosity to calculate some of the true rarities of old editions.

I did find this for some of the Bowmans: http://portasite.com/?page_id=4266 .

Would building up an estimate from retail sales organically be the only way to arrive at the numbers? I'm actually most interested in pre-war for this so might have to estimate packs of gum, tobacco or cigarettes produced.

Thanks.

There are numbers on some cards concerning the number of players in sets. And I think a few series (CJ's etc..) said they made a million or however many cards (probably as marketing hype). I don't think I have seen any hard distribution numbers...I don't think counting today's populations/sales of pre-war cards would be accurate in estimating how many were produced.

This is where knowledge, reading everything you can get your hands on, and diligent study comes in. You'll never know how many of most sets were initially produced, but you can come to reasonable estimates of the rarity of those that have survived through applying the above for years and years.

Best of luck on your endeavor,

Larry