N300 Mayo VS N172 Old Judge
 

Greetings fellow collectors. I was thinking about the scarcity of these two sets n300 mayo and the n172 Old Judge. I was wondering which set is scarcer today? Seems like many more N172's are for sale as opposed to n300 mayo. This is in part due to the relativey large number produced as opposed to the small size of the N300 Mayo set. I personally think the mayo set is very beautiful and the cards are more attractive then the N172's. I still like the N172 cards and they are very nice cards also. I don't want to upset any Old Judge collectors. Would be interested in any comments on these sets. Look forward to some replies.

Over the years I have seen far less Mayos but not all that many of either. I also just plain like Mayos better but think Old Judges are more interesting. Oddly, I have seen more N28s than either. All are treasures. If I add one a year at this point, it's a pretty good year given my odd preferences (nonslabbed, HOFer) low to mid grade with pleasant eye appeal, not so expensive that I shouldn't put the money in the kid's college fund instead). A few years ago I picked up a Mayo Anson with a crease...really glad to get it.

Mayo's are great looking cards no doubt but I wouldn't call them scarce. Comparing them to n172 is also nearly impossible b/c there is such a vast degree of different levels of scarcity within the n172 set.

I think Jeff summarized it best. The most common Mayo is scarcer than the most common Old Judge, but there are no rarities within the Mayo set. However, the median scarcity Old Judge is probably comparable in scarcity to the median scarcity Mayo.

A couple differences...

N172's are real photographs, N300's are printed photographs.

N300 set is not too hard for an advanced collector, a N172 set is impossible.