Manufactured Scarcity
Here are a few thoughts regarding the 1-of-1 cards coming out of new products:
1. From a supply standpoint, they are rare...no doubt about it. After all, there's only 1 of them. However...
2. There are a mind-numbing number of sets released each year. Given the prevalence of printing 1-of-1 cards, there are actually dozens of these "unique" cards on the market.
3. The card companies do not stop at just one player. As such, there are dozens of cards for perhaps hundreds of players.
4. Because us baseball fans like statistics, I will throw a very conservative number out there. Let's say that there are 100 players and each of them has 10 different cards, all of which are 1-of-1. That would be 1,000 "unique" cards.
5. The example above only takes into account this year. The card companies have been doing this for a while now, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. So, now we're talking about thousands of cards.
6. It seems to me they really aren't that "rare," after all.
Best Regards,
Eric
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