Ever wondered how many ACTIVE collectors there are in the United States?

[JunkyJoe]

Originally Posted by Leon

The US population is about 326M. If 1 in 400 people collect baseball cards then the number of collectors would be approx. 815,000 ......so that is my guess though I think a round million sounds about right.

ps...I realize there are collectors in other countries but for baseball I am pretty sure the US is the major place they are collected.

That total number sounds pretty reasonable, if not a little optimistic [IMO]. But then ask yourself, how many of those 800,000+ collectors collect Postwar to 1980 baseball?

If we exclude the guys who collect modern and Prewar baseball cards, then what number would we be left with?

[Exhibitman]

I think you meant exclude modern and postwar collectors. That would cut out the majority of 'serious' card collectors for sure. How would you handle those who collect across the board? The # of prewar-only collectors is certainly a fraction of the total number of even the hardcore collecting base. I mean, I collect across all eras. I have 19th Century cards and I have 2018 cards. Do I count into the prewar census?

For some issues I suspect that even 100 collectors would be an overestimation. Take Exhibit cards for example. I think I know most of the serious Exhibit collectors due to feedback on my book and years of trading and list comparisons, and there's maybe 50 of them at most across all subjects, plus a few dozen more who aren't ardent about Exhibits but who are doing sets of various types, mostly baseball and football. That's why it is an area that is reasonably priced, except for a few cards that have crossed over to popular collecting (e.g., the 1925 Gehrig RC, 1923-24 Ruth) . Even the Ruth and Gehrig cards are reasonable as compared to candy and gum issues.

[JunkyJoe]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I think you meant exclude modern and postwar collectors. That would cut out the majority of 'serious' card collectors for sure. How would you handle those who collect across the board? The # of prewar-only collectors is certainly a fraction of the total number of even the hardcore collecting base. I mean, I collect across all eras. I have 19th Century cards and I have 2018 cards. Do I count into the prewar census?

Actually, I meant to include only Postwar to 1980 collectors, since I'm trying to figure out approximately how many active collectors collect those years specifically.

I realize that there are some who collect baseball cards across the board -- modern, vintage, tobacco, photos, etc. Would it be safe to assume they are a minority compared to the number of collectors who focus 99% on just 1 era of cards, say ... modern only, or, tobacco only?

[Exhibitman]

Most collectors I know who collect postwar also collect prewar. I'd say people who are exclusive to one era or the other are a small part of the collecting base compared to those who collect across eras.

[JunkyJoe]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Most collectors I know who collect postwar also collect prewar. I'd say people who are exclusive to one era or the other are a small part of the collecting base compared to those who collect across eras.

Ok, so would it be safe to say that we could include ~50% of the Prewar collectors with the Postwar collectors? For my personal collection, I'd estimate only 1% or 2% is Prewar 30's cards, around 5% to 7% is post-'80 "junky" cards, and the rest is Postwar to late 70's... so then, about 90% of my collection is late 40's to early 70's, mostly somewhere toward middle of that year range.

Now, on occasion, I do still buy a Prewar or post-1980 card, but it's pretty rare -- I'd say less than 5% of my recent purchases. So, I'd consider myself to be solidly in the "Postwar vintage" group.

[Empty77]

I think Leon's approach was best, to estimate based on a known fixed number like total population and then take a percentage of that based on a personal experience/common sense guestimate of how many people out of X that you pass on the street might be a card collector.

Another problem with guessing based on a percentage of total sales, besides there being so many sources of sales, with private companies not necessarily publishing that information, is the problem of figuring an average spend per collector per year---given that number could be wildly compromised by dealers/speculators in the hobby who aren't collecting per se but bidding against everyone for items simply to try and flip them. This could variously inflate or deflate the guestimate of collectors depending on how you look at it.

[RCMcKenzie]

It depends upon how you define 'collector.' I think tens of millions of people are baseball fans and might have a Carlton Fisk autographed photo or a Doc Gooden baseball in their office. The number of people that are daily grinding on a 1950's Topps set is probably less than 8,000 people. The number of people that might outbid me on T213 etc is like 8 and they are all on this board and have been for years and years.