T207 Napoleon Back's

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Posted By: Donald Johnson

I was just going over some old posts that detailed the relative rarity of the different T207 backs and compared some of the lists on the old posts to the SGC Pop reports and I was surprised to find that Napoleon's seemed to be significantly rarer (at least graded examples) than either Broadleaf or Cycle backs. For example there are around 130+ graded T207 Cycle backed cards yet there are only 46 or so graded Napoleon backs. Is this just a function of people just not grading a fairly common back or are Napoleons significantly rarer than thought before? I couldn't find any detailed info on Anonymous backs in the SGC pop reports either.

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Posted By: leon

I think the Napoleans are more scarce, going by the seat of my pants in what I see, and are possibly tougher than we think? One thing to keep in mind is that more things get graded when they get sold and more Cylcles get sold, due to the beautiful red backs and the price they bring. That could be a reason for the disparity in the numbers graded...regards

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Posted By: Bob

Donald- because the red Cycle backs appear only in the scarce card series and the Napoleons appear in the more common "Recruit" series, Napoleons don't have the premium they should. leon is correct when he says the red Cycle backs because of eye appeal bring more than Broadleafs or Anonymous, despite the fact they aren't scarcer within the "scarce card set". Clear as mud? I don't even want to get in to the fact that the really rare back in the set (other than the Red Cross) is the OTHER Anonymous back, well, that is a story for another day. Suffice it to say that if you have a Johnson, Tinker, Chance, Speaker, Bender or Bresnahan with a Napoleon back, you can expect the card to bring far more than what the SMR or any guide sets forth.
tbob

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Posted By: Donald Johnson

I just found it interesting that the Napoleon's for being supposedly "common backs" are graded at about a 1 to 20 ratio compared to the more regular Recruit backs ie over 1000+ regular Recruit backs graded in SGC's pop report to only around 50 or so Napoleon backs. Might be as Leon surmised that people just haven't bothered getting them graded...

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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

My population survey and article in VCBC made much the same point-- Napoleons are very scarce compared to Recruits but so far they haven't gotten the premium.

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Posted By: Richard Masson

Thanks for the reminder that it was you that did that exhaustive T207 study in the last VCBC. That was a great piece of work.