Pops
 

I'm relatively new to collecting cards and tickets.
In the description of some I've seen POP THREE, POP FOUR etc.
I'm sure someone here can tell me what this indicates.

thanks in advance

Grading companies like PSA, Beckett, and SGC all keep what's called a "Population Report" that lists all the cards they have ever graded. That name is typically shortened to "Pop Report". When someone says a card is POP 1/2/3/4, that means there are only 1/2/3/4 of those cards in existence that have been graded by the company.

great....thanks

I expected this thread to be about Willie Stargell, so please forgive my ignorance here….

What happens when someone cracks a “pop” out of its slab and re-submits it? What if the “pop” comes back with a different number or is submitted to another Opinion Giver? What if Moser, Huigens or Mathis alter the “pop”, thus rendering the “pop” non-existent and obsolete?

Is there a “slab police” to monitor such activity? Perhaps these are dumb questions, but I would really like to know the answers.

The answer is there is no answer. The TPAs have no way of knowing if a card/item is still in their slab or not. IF you crack a card 2 or 3 times and resubmit fishing for a higher grade, the previous grades still are in their system.

The pop report only counts for a specific grader. So pop reports for PSA do not count SGC, etc. Crack a PSA and send to SGC and the same card will be in both reports.

The only thing I would be curious about is if, one company notifies another if an official crossover is done. So, if you send a PSA slabbed card to SGC to be crossed over, do they notify PSA of the switch? I would be curious to know.

I think the important point for a new collector to understand is that pop reports have inherent limitations. SGC and PSA might say there are 30 cards of these graded, but that's misleading, as no doubt cards in SGC or PSA holders were cracked out of their cases and submitted to the other company. I've done that and many others on the board have done as well. And the companies don't take cards off their population report when they are submitted to another company. And of course there is also Beckett grading and now newer grading companies. And there may be a combined reported population total of 30 cards for example, but even a cursory glance on eBay may show raw ungraded cards in existence. And there likely are other raw cards never submitted to any company and are sitting in a safe or in an attic somewhere. So reported Pop #s are useful but have a lot of obvious limitations.

True, but the one thing that can be stated with certainty is that if the combined number of graded 10 cards is 30, there are no more than 30, There probably are less, but cannot be more.

For newer cards there are unopened packs and boxes. Every month PSA grades more PSA 10 MIchael Jordan rookie cards and more Luka and Tua 10s. Agree that for vintage probably very unlikely there are a lot of pristine 10s lying around.

I once paid good money for a card from the 1920s PSA 7 "highest ever graded" only to look at the pop report a few years later and see two 8s magically appear.

The point is that at the time of purchase, that was a true statement. Personally, I don't give a rat's ass what PSA grades something or how many are higher as of that exact moment of time. I own ZERO graded cards and have only had a few pass throughs. But I do understand someone marketing something that way.
I don't think you thought that your card was the best the world would EVER see, did you? Just that there were none graded higher at the time of the transaction.

I sort of thought so. It’s a total graded pop of like 30 cards and is from 1925 so I was shocked when two higher graded cards suddenly appeared.

As a collector I think it’s pretty cool to own the nicest version known to exist of a card. I think that’s a pretty common sentiment in most collecting fields. Of course others may see it differently.

Bummer :eek:. I imagine you felt similarly to the E98 folks after the Black Swamp reared it's head!

regardless you get great info hear and we would love to see your pickups as you get them

enjoy the ride