Are high numbers really all that rare?

[the 'stache]

I think it's a combination of scarcity and condition driving the price.

If you look at the 1952 Topps set, there's an interesting tidbit about the high number series cards.

From Cardboard Connection:

Folklore and Legends
No one but the Yankees' scouting department could foresee just what a legendary figure "The Mick" would become, not even the set's architect, Sy Berger. It's been long said that Berger, stuck with several unsold pallets of high-numbered series cases, unceremoniously dumped the cards into the Hudson River with a forklift. This disturbing fact haunts collectors to this day, knowing that one of the most valuable baseball cards ever made likely has several dozen examples entombed in a watery grave.

Hmm.

Anybody got a scuba set, and a HASMAT suit I can borrow?