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Posted By: Nick

The fact that the pop report on the Mantle is so high is not fully inconsistent with its high SMR price.

Mantle is the most expensive card raw from that set (I'm going by the last Beckett baseball monthly I have, which is a year old), but in PSA 8 condition (I'm using the March 2005 SMR, which is in the handiest one I have), Aaron Yellow Letters is the same price as Mantle, and Clenente Yellow Letters is more expensive than Mantle. In PSA 9 condition, not only are those two cards more expensive than Mantle, but so is Ted Williams, and the World Series Batting Foes (Mantle/Aaron) is the same price as Mantle. Plus, PSA 9 Mays is almost the same price as PSA 9 Mantle. In this case, the higher pop. numbers on Mantle dovetail with a higher demand to keep its price high.

I expect that the same holds true for the most collectible stars in widely collected pre-war sets as well.