1887 Old Judge survival rates???

[Leon]

Originally Posted by cyseymour

Certainly, but although pop reports may not be accurate, they can give someone a general sense of a card's rarity. For instance, if you see that a certain number of Amos Rusie's are graded, while three times as many Monte Ward's are graded, that can give you a general sense that Rusie might be about three times as rare as Ward.

I understand that there are lot of problems with crossovers and crack and re-submits, etc. But no one will no for sure exactly how many of a card are circulating in the hobby (unless it's very rare, perhaps). But for the general purpose of the beginning collector, I think that pop reports can be a good resource as a general guide, even if the only thing that is certain is that they are inaccurate.

The flaw in that thinking is that collectors generally get more expensive cards graded, thereby making a pop report erroneous when trying to figure a true population, not just the graded card pop.