[Ronnie73]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

First - what do you mean Steve Evans isn't the rarest card in the set?

Second (and more seriously) If one assumes a higher percentage of extant Cobbs are graded than of any other "normal" card, it should give you a starting point to extrapolate overall numbers for commons.

OK Cobb might have been saved more often than other players due to his stature but the question becomes what percentage of Cobb cards does the collecting world suspect are graded? I know we have gotten in a few raw ones over the last 5 years (that we of course graded) but there's obviously a decent number of ungraded copies out there.

I agree that certain HOF cards could actually give you an idea of the quantity of the more common cards that were not graded as much. I wouldn't use the Red Cobb though, because it's a Super Print. Maybe use an average of the Cy Young with Glove and the Johnson Hand at Chest. I don't think many collectors would just hold on to a few of the stars and toss the rest. Also, for a few years, I payed attention to a certain group of cards and made sure none were counted twice, and I found that with these certain common cards, on average, 75% were coming up ungraded, with the rest being graded. So, from my past research, multiplying a common graded card total by 4 would give you a close number in existance. Obviously, there are some commons that won't fit that 4x quantity rule.