[JustinD]

Originally Posted by brian1961

It seems to me Jake has identified the most crucial question in this discussion. There might be "a ton" of ungraded 1952 Topps Mantles, but come on, do you really think their technical grades would come out that high? Remember all those stories you've heard in your life about someone saying, "I'm sure it will grade MINT, or at the very least "NEAR MINT - MINT". Then it's graded by PSA or SGC and ....

I think my stance on that was pretty clear in post 12 when I put -

"I have a different opinion than most, but I do not feel the Mantle is rare at all other than in pristine form."

Yes, in pristine it's crazy rare, but still not as rare as tons of other cards like Rutherford. There are only three 10's, but there are still 10s. I think those owners are likely all high level collectors that got them from the Mr. Mint find already brought up. I doubt there are many, if any, 9 or 10s in non-collector hands. Maybe an attic find someday like black swamp, but it's pretty unlikely. The hidden cards are likely low or mid grades that were purchased or well played with years ago.

My point is that if at any time between Ebay, shops and auction houses (and even leon's on this site) I can find 40+ examples daily. How can that be a rare card unless every one is selling theirs every two weeks? Even throwing the large number of cards being sold daily to the wind, there are still more PSA 10's of Mantle than every other card in the set.