For a lot of pre-war, even the more common stuff, this is an abstract matter.
How many actual, genuinely Mint cards are there in c. 1910 sets? Many of those graded as such are not Mint but are in fact trimmed cards that are a 0 but look very nice. There's the Black Swamp E98's and a tiny number of other cards that have survived in Mint condition. I am pretty sure the majority of my pre-war wantlist has 0 mint examples surviving to even be a possibility. Minty cards mostly don't exist for what I collect, and so they aren't an option for me. Even genuine, actual EX cards are rare for most sets (T206 there's a lot due to the huge numbers of extant cards). My priority is finishing sets, and oftentimes the card I get depends more on what comes up than the grade. Sometimes it's a poor beater, sometimes it's the top POP card that I then crack out. My preference is to the former, I don't care about creases and honest wear and so I'd rather have the worse card that I like just the same but costs me less, but oftentimes it's not a real factor because I don't have 12 available to choose from and price.
|