Are high numbers really all that rare?

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by conor912

It's my understanding that high numbers (i.e. the last series or two of a set) came out at the end of the baseball season, usually around September. Unlike the first series coming out in the spring with much adolescent anticipation, by September kids had moved onto other things, like the new school year, and more or less given up on cards for the year. Card companies, in turn, caught on to this trend and began making fewer cards for these series' instead of making a bunch that they wouldn't end up selling.

And let's not forget that the cards were basically sold by Mom n' Pop Shops. As the Summer wound down and interest waned, they had cards from earlier Series that the kids had already had their fill of. I do not believe that the store owners could swap 4th Series cards for 5th with their vendor. They were not going to buy Higher Series cards and let the Mid-Series cards collect dust in the backroom. Kids that truly collected (I was one) were astute enough to notice that one store had lower Series and another had the higher. I would walk an extra 10 city blocks to go to a store with a newer Series. Once a store fell behind, they were screwed....

One final point, even though these squares of cardboard mean something to us on this board, baseball cards were just one of dozens of options for the allowance money. The Mom n 'Pop Shop owners probably didn't give it as much thought as it did to type these lines...."Baseball cards are not selling?" "No! But, the Beverly Hillbillies cards, Marvel Comics and the candy cigarettes are"...... "Oh?...OK"