[prewarsports]

I estimate that there are probably 500-1000 major league players going back to 1876 when the league was formed (but including the Union Association and American Association) that there are no known autographs of in the hobby, or examples anywhere but maybe some draft cards online. If you throw in Negro League players you are over 1000 for sure. Add in the early professional leagues from 1872-76 and you are closer to 1500. This is probably a LOW number but it gives an idea of many autographs out there have no known examples.

I think the best collection in the hobby has somewhere in the 13,000-14,000 different autographs and if I remember right there are about 18,000 major leaguers to have played from 1876-present. The vast majority of the ones that are missing are 19th century players.