[SMPEP]

Hi Steve,

I think the usefulness of populations reports may vary set by set, and year (decade?) by year. For 1952 Topps, you're not really dealing with rarities (with the exception of the grey backs) to complete the set. The challenge is more budget related. On the flip side, my other set of collecting interest is the 1923 W572s. The population lists tell you a lot more in that case (especially since many cards have 0 or 1 graded sample). There are obvious unrecognized short prints in that set and using the population report can be very helpful to figure out the set.

But back to the 1952 Topps set, the 1952 population report reflects three things (I think): 1) people submitting high grade cards (regardless of player), 2) stars get graded (these are more resalable), and 3) complete set builders. So when I was trying to figure out the ratios, I found it to be more useful to look at what's on sale on Ebay.

On Ebay, if a card is rarer, fewer people will have it for sale, and when it comes up for sale, more people will buy (unless the price is ridiculous). So if you see fewer, you know this is a shorter print. If a card is more common, there will be more of them and lower demand, so more of them will sit on Ebay for a while. So if you use Ebay as the source (a lot more work), you will see the ratios much more clearly. Both between cards in a given series, as well as between series.

Cheers,
Patrick