Just when you think baseball cards are the center of the universe

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

none of the three contestants on Jeopardy tonight could identify the person depicted on a T206 Wagner. I was a bit surprised. I wonder if Mantle would have caused the same lack of response? At least it was a 2000. question....

I really doubt a 52 Mantle would of had any better response. In reality card collecting is done by a very small percentage of people.

[Stonepony]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I really doubt a 52 Mantle would of had any better response. In reality card collecting is done by a very small percentage of people.

I think the chances of Mantle being identified are far greater

[vintagesportscollector]

I don’t find that surprising at all. In fact I would have been shocked if more than 1 of the contestants knew it. You can walk down any street in any city in America and ask 100 people, and I will bet you that no more than 20 people will know, if that many.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

I don’t find that surprising at all. In fact I would have been shocked if more than 1 of the contestants knew it. You can walk down any street in any city in America and ask 1000 people, and I will bet you that no more than 2 people will know, if that many.

I fixed that for you.

[Jeffrompa]

Honus rolled over in his grave .

[clydepepper]

With apologies to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett...

We collectors are the REAL 1%

[Cozumeleno]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

I fixed that for you.

Agree -

I think a decent amount (maybe 10%-20%) of people are aware of that card in the sense that they know there's some rare baseball card they've seen in the news before. But few could probably pick it out of a lineup and practically none could tell you the name of the player.

[Steve D]

Heck, one of the questions on the show was something like "Barry Bonds broke this man's career home run record, and the first response was "Who is Babe Ruth?"

Then another question was about the record 56 game hitting streak, and they even showed a picture of Joe DiMaggio! The first response to this one (not from the same contestant as the first one) was also "Who is Babe Ruth?"

After those two, I'm not surprised at all that none of the three contestants knew of Honus Wagner.


Steve

[nrm1977]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I really doubt a 52 Mantle would of had any better response. In reality card collecting is done by a very small percentage of people.

I concur. Card collecting really isn't a huge market nowadays. We may think it is...

[mighty bombjack]

What was the answer? Did they show the card? Certainly Trebek didn't say "The person depicted on the t206 Wagner."

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by mighty bombjack

What was the answer? Did they show the card? Certainly Trebek didn't say "The person depicted on the t206 Wagner."

..he only does that on "Celebrity Jeopardy" on Saturday Night Live.....the answer would inevitably be ' Who is Turd Ferguson?' or "your mother, TREBECK!"

..

[darwinbulldog]

I'm guessing about 1 in a 1000 could identify the man in this picture:

[begsu1013]

.

[pokerplyr80]

For the last time the category is therapists Bob.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I'm guessing about 1 in a 1000 could identify the man in this picture:

There are around 250 million people in the US that are 16 years of age or older. Do you really think there are 250,000 who know who Walter Johnson is?

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

There are around 250 million people in the US that are 16 years of age or older. Do you really think there are 250,000 who know who Walter Johnson is?

Absolutely. I'm guessing at least 100 million would recognize it as a picture of an old baseball player. You'd have a lot more people guessing Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, and DiMaggio than getting it right; but he's the single greatest pitcher in the history of the game after all, so 250,000 seems about right to me. I grew up in New Orleans. We've got about 400,000 people there. Surely there are at least a few hundred old-timers in the entire city who would take one look at that photo and say, "Well that's Walter Johnson of course. Why do you ask?" And that's not even a baseball city. You'd do much better in St. Louis or Boston. And of course there are hundreds of other cities, to say nothing of the suburbs and the countryside.

Among baseball card collectors, the 1 in 1000 number doesn't seem plausible. I think about 80% of pre-war collectors would know, maybe 20% of the Topps era collectors would know (or at least guess correctly), and then maybe 1% of the modern card collectors. In total, I'd guess 5-10% of all baseball card collectors, not 0.1%.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I'm guessing about 1 in a 1000 could identify the man in this picture:

I wouldn't be surprised if many purely modern collectors and followers of the game wouldn't even know who that is. I collect some modern and some of those guys seem surprised that the game existed prior to 1950.

[brightair]

Watched a show recently where a guy filmed himself asking young Americans on a beach questions like...

"Who won the Civil War?"
"Who fought in the American Revolution?"
"When did the War of 1812 happen?"

The answers were painful to hear.

Seriously, it breaks your heart...

Is anyone really surprised about a 100 year old baseball card? If so, enjoy that nice comfy bubble you live in.

I am frequently having to burst my own little bubbles as I run into examples of general ignorance and inabilities to think critically almost daily.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I'm guessing about 1 in a 1000 could identify the man in this picture:

There is no way that many know who that is. I have been collecting for close to 30 years and had no idea who it was. Maybe 1 in 1000 card collectors know who it is.

[joeadcock]

I wonder if even the majority of major league players now in 2016 know who that is.