E107 Question

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Posted By: Paul

On another thread, it was mentioned that about 6 or 7 E107 Wagners are known. I've never heard that the Wagner is scarcer than any other card in the set, but let's say it's a little scarcer than average, so that maybe there's an average of 10 known for each card in the set.

With this extreme rarity, how is it that this set is so well documented? As far as I know, the checklist for this set hasn't changed for decades, except for the addition of a few variations of previously known players. It seems to me almost possible that in the early days of collecting, Jefferson Burdick or other pioneers could have confirmed the existence of almost 150 different cards, each of which is this rare.

Compare this to the N167 Old Judge set. It's probably safe to say only 5-10 of each exist. With only the players from one team in the set, it should have been much easier to confirm all the cards. But the Sports Collectors Bible (published in the 1980s) listed only two cards. The rest were confirmed later. How could so many more cards in the much larger E107 set have been confirmed so much sooner?