Posted By:
Tim NewcombI could be wrong, but I suspect you won't find a Holmes to Homes Wagner on N54 or anywhere else.
I doubt you will find a Standard Biscuit Wagner right now (except your own)
Does this mean they are of equal scarcity? Absolutely not--
For one thing it's already zero H2H to one SB-- which is a big difference right there.
But more broadly, you can't show X is as rare as Y just by the current lack of examples of each.
Everybody who has really studied these sets knows that Holmes to Homes cards overall are scarcer than Standard Biscuit by a very wide margin-- maybe 50 times as scarce, maybe 100.
so which makes more sense?
1. They are equally scarce because we can't find either of them right now (except for yours, remember)
or
2. An H2H Wagner is likely to be 50-100 times as scarce as a SB Wagner-- which doesn't mean your SB isn't highly desirable.
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Another way to look at it:
There are 9 different M101-5 backs known (M101-5 only, not M101-4), including D350-1. At 200 cards per, that's 1800 possible cards. I'd say that if you surveyed every source you could think of for a year, you would be able to check off maybe 400 of those cards. The vast majority of these would be blank backs, Famous and Barrs, and Standard Biscuits. That means that any given time, roughly 75-80% of all M101-5 front/back combinations would be impossible to verify.
Should we conclude they are all uncataloged or unchecklisted because we can't find a copy?
No, they are simply quite scarce. But the checklist is known.
Tim