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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Of course, my preceeding post represents speculation which follows one hobby development path. Certainly, alternate paths exist. For example, coin collecting developed along an entirely different mechanism of awareness. In that hobby, a brute force approach was employed to deal with their ignorance. Specifically, collectors banded together in discreet study groups to address the grading and population of those coins within their field of specialization.

In numismatics, one of the more advanced groups is called the Early American Coppers (club). These individuals have studied a particularly complex area of coin collecting: the first cents and half cents issued by the US Mint.

The accomplishments of this group include the identification of each individual coin variant in their sector of the hobby, the development of a grading scheme preferred to evaluate those coins within their realm (independent of grading company's opinions), definition of the relative scarcity of each variant, establishment of a condition census which identifies the best condition examples of each variant and tracks the location of each condition census coin (as possible), documentation of the price for each variant in all possible grades, maintenance and updating the above information, as applicable.

Obviously, the foregoing is no small task. In our hobby, the equivalent to the early american coppers may be the old judge set.

A significant team of hobbiests, posessing considerable knowledge, or in some cases, just a willingness to help; was successfully brought to bear to address the need.

Other groups in other study areas have met with similar or lesser success utilizing approaches deemed applicable to the coins in their area of specialization. Some areas remain wanting better definition.

One problem facing the approach I outlined in my previous post is the reliance on database utilities to capture the needed data. In operation, the only data which will be captured is that of graded cards. Important ungraded cards will be ignored with the potential hobby development path which I cited.

There are certainly many possibilities here. I remain curious regarding how we do progress.

Edited to change two "coins" to "cards"