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Posted By: david

the problem with performing this type of statistical analysis is that there are too many unknown variables to obtain a meaningful result. For instance, in most cases cards were not printed in the exact same amounts, popular players were often double printed and some cards were held back intentionally(33 lajoie and lindstrom). without having access to printing sheets or records it is impossible to determine scarcity of a single card with respect to other cards in the set. Also, perhaps the biggest variable is the collecting habits of people when the cards were printed, most likely the poplular players were saved and the commons discarded but the rate at which this occurred is impossible to determine. the best way to get an idea of relative scarcity is to take a survey of individual cards. seth at 19thcentury tried this on his site and i have been playing around with the idea of creating a site to expand on it to include individual cards not just a type card from a set.