That's exactly my point! There 188 PSA 8 Clementes, making it much more likely that one person (or a group of people) has a bunch of 8's to profit from once a single 9 (or a few 8's) go for crazy prices. Inversely, with only 24 Red Cobb 8's out there, the odds are much less than someone has enough 8's or 7's, etc. to make it worth the while to attempt to manipulate. Plus, the sale of a single high-grade Cobb at normal prices during this process can much more easily derail a manipulation, than a series of repeated, rapid sales of a 1950 HOFer all at huge prices thus establishing an apparent value. I am not saying it cant be done (and isn't done) with the older/scarcer cards, I am just saying it seems much harder and much less opportunistic than a 1950's card, which has so many more high grade examples.
And Clemente vs Red Cobb is a gratuitous example in that Clemente is a relatively tough/rarer card as far as 19050's rookies go and the Red Cobb is likely the most commonly graded T206. Juxtapose this against other 19050's rookies that are believed to be manipulated -- over 320 PSA 8 Koufax, almost 500 PSA 8 Roses, and over 1000 PSA 8 Nolan Ryan RCs -- against a more rare T206 like the Green Cobb with only 10 PSA 8's, or Cy Young Portrait with only 14 PSA 8's (and very few 9's, if any, of either).
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