Oops! I guess it's not that rare after all

[Rob D.]

The nature of this question might exclude those who weren't collecting in the pre-Internet/pre-eBay days, so apologies in advance.

During a phone conversation this week with a board member, the subject of perceived scarcity came up -- and more specifically items on which we'd been so very wrong. I know as a Cleveland Indians collector, the Internet in general and eBay specifically has educated me about pieces of memorabilia that I thought were scarce and possibly rare when in reality they're pretty common.

At the top of my list is the Stanford Pottery Chief Wahoo bank. In 1990 I finally was able to add one of these to my collection, and words cannot express how happy I was. At the time I was living in northeast Ohio, about 30 miles from where the Stanford Pottery factory was located. So one would think that I would have known how many of these statues were out there. But I wasn't the only one who was ignorant. Indians collectors who had 20 years experience on me at the time also were of the opinion that these were really, really tough. It wasn't uncommon to expect to pay at a minimum $300 for one -- if you could find one.

Then, after eBay became popular, the realization hit that Stanford Pottery Chief Wahoos aren't all that scarce. At any time on eBay you can probably find 4-5 available, and even though they're still offered for $200-$300, I doubt many sellers are getting near that price.

So my question to you is: What piece of memorabilia in your area of expertise proved to be not as rare as previously thought?