Seems to me that its much more difficulty to manipulate the prices of pre-war cards (especially very old one like T206 or Allen/Ginters) than post-war, based purely on scarcity; I am not talking bid shilling, that can happen on any auction.
According to the PSA registry, there are 188 (with half grades and qualifiers) PSA 8, 1955 Clementes. Contrast that to the T206 Red Cobb, which has only 24 examples at an 8. There are over 8 times as many Clemente 8's than Red Cobb 8's. It follows that there is less opportunity and motivation to manipulate the Red Cobb than the Clemente, bc there are fewer examples use for manipulation and fewer examples to sell and reap a windfall from.
I am not saying the value of old cards cannot be manipulated. But it seems to me their scarcity alone creates one safe guard against manipulation and may explain why these older cards seem to be retaining their value when all the stud 1950's rookies have come down so much in price.
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