United States estimated population on June 22 2011 -
311,603,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population
Of that 311,603,000, around 75.7% are over the age of 18. That gives us around
235,883,471 "adults".
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
A PEW Research Center poll show that 46% of Americans follow sports. 28% percent only "somewhat" follow sports, so that leaves up 18% who follow sports "very close." I figure that you have to at least follow sports very closely to invest a fortune in century old cardboard. 18% of 235,883,471 equals
42,459,024 .
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/?ChartID=135
Taking into account that Baseball is likely your favorite sport if you are a pre-war baseball collector- According to the Sports Business Journal, 17% of American sports fans selected Baseball as their favorite sport. 17% of 42,459,024 is
7,218,034. So upwards of 7 million Americans love baseball more than any other sport.
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/66/un...ns-call-soccer
Although kids aged 7-11 were the focus of this poll, it was the most relevant I could find and the ESPN/TNS Intersearch poll showed that 37% of children aged 7-11 collected sports cards. 49.8% of that 37% collected baseball. I believe it plausible that if 37% of all children age 7-11 collect sports cards then we can ascertain that of the 7 million Americans who "love" baseball at least 37% will dabble in sports cards during adulthood. 37% of 7,218,034 is
2,670,672. If 49.8% collect baseball that gives us
1,305,959 adult baseball card collectors.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/D...tandclose=true
For the sake of argument, because google is running dry, let's say that one-third of adult baseball collectors "actively collect". 33.3% of 1,305,959 is
434,884 "Adult Americans actively collecting baseball cards".
On ebay there are 2,206,747 results for baseball cards, 34,380 of which were listed under the "Pre-WW2" era. Considering one can now argue ebay is the ultimate market for sports collectibles, 1.5% of the baseball card market is pre-war.
http://sports-cards.shop.ebay.com/Ba...=p3286.c0.m282
If the market is a reflection of the population, a fair argument, then 1.5%, or
19,589, of the adult baseball collector population actively collects pre-war.
That being said, I am feeling a little verklempt. Rhode Island is neither a road nor is it an island. Discuss.
