What Percentage of Vintage Cards Have Been Graded?

[SMPEP]

There is no single answer to this question.

Let's take 1923 W572s (which I collect).

PSA Pop report lists 17 graded Ty Cobbs and 18 graded Babe Ruths. SGC has 23 Ty Cobbs and 19 Babe Ruths. I know even Beckett's has at least 1 of each. How many ungraded cards of these stars exist? There are some. But it is less common to see ungraded ones for sale than graded ones. As a WAG, I'd say about 100 or each player (give or take) exists.

But let's compare these players with Mostil, Ray Grimes, John Collins, Elmer Smith and Severied.

Why did I pick these specific guys? They were all originally printed on the same exact ten card strip as Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. So we know they all started out with the same number of cards. (It's logical to assume Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb would have been thrown away less and there are probably a few more of those cards than the common guys - but this is the closest we can get.)

Mostil - 3 PSA, 6 SGC. Grimes - 2 PSA, 3 SGC. Collins -3 PSA, 1 SGC. Smith - 3 PSA, 10 SGC. Severied - 0 PSA, 5 SGC. Ungraded cards for these guys are plentiful.

So for some common players we have 4-5 cards graded. Some common players have as many as 13. And there are at least 41 Ty Cobbs and 38 Babe Ruths.

So what do we know:

1) Stars for this set (and I expect just about all sets) get graded more often.
2) Grading for commons can vary pretty widely. Between 10x and 4 x less often than the star player (based on this set).


It also shuld be noted that this set isn't terribly popular (except for me and Brian!).

Most of the cards sell for very little money compared to T206s, T205s, cracker jacks, OJs, etc.

So there is less incentive to grade cards in this set compared to others. BUT all of those other sets, had much larger populations produced.


If forced to give an answer - I'd bet major stars and rare cards/pre-war sets are mostly graded. Common players - mostly ungraded. Mainstream sets - more graded. Less mainstream sets - less graded. Rare desired sets - mostly graded.

Cheers,
Patrick