How many Wags?

[bmattioli]

I have always gone by the 50 or less theory..

[G1911]

We have production numbers (which many not even be complete due to the Brett Litho. fire) for some of the other T card sets. Of course, we do not have a total count of surviving cards to calculate the %, but it seems the % is pretty clearly very, very low for them. The survival rate of all T cards are probably pretty similar.

[cannonballsun]

It's hard to vote in the poll, due to we just have so little information to work with. Here would be my guesses.
The T206 set was issued over 100 years ago. For most of those 100+ years, probably 99% of the population viewed T206 cards as worthless pieces of paper. I would guess 99% of the T206 cards have been either thrown away or destroyed, or just haven't been found yet.
It seems 45 to 70 Wagner's (various opinions) still exist. I would think that is more than 1% of the Wagner's created. Maybe 10%. The Wagner was known as rare and somewhat valuable, but by what percentage of the population - 5% ?
So that's my guesses. Around 500 Wagner's were made, 10% are left.
One thing I am certain of. More Wagners will be found and pop up over time. That is one of the great things about our hobby. Stuff is always being found that was lost, misplaced, or just not known to be valuable.

[cannonballsun]

Originally Posted by G1911

We have production numbers (which many not even be complete due to the Brett Litho. fire) for some of the other T card sets. Of course, we do not have a total count of surviving cards to calculate the %, but it seems the % is pretty clearly very, very low for them. The survival rate of all T cards are probably pretty similar.

I was not familiar with the production numbers, so I googled it. An article in the Sports Collector's Digest said that production could be as high as 370 million (based on cigarette pack sales), and as many as 1.6 million T206 cards still exist. Those are huge numbers, but definitely a very low survival rate.

[insidethewrapper]

I don't believe anyone ever verified that a Wagner card was actually inserted into a pack. Did any of the old-timers ever report someone getting one in a pack of cigarettes ?

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

I don't believe anyone ever verified that a Wagner card was actually inserted into a pack. Did any of the old-timers ever report someone getting one in a pack of cigarettes ?

I think there's enough evidence to assume he was inserted in Sweet Caporal packs, trying to even guess how many is hard to do because there's nothing to compare it with.
I believe there were a few series of SC150/25 and SC150/30 printings and Wagner was included in only one of those printings.

[mrvster]

+ 1 and like plank....