Relative value in regional sets?

[Bigdaddy]

You see the same pricing within the Topps flagship issues. For example, Mickey Mantle has six cards in the 1961 set which include his base card, AL HR Leaders, WS Game #2, 566' Home Run, AL MVP and All-Star. The base card is always going to be the most expensive, with any others lagging behind by as much as an order of magnitude. In these cases, it's solely a demand issue as the cards were printed in the same numbers with exceptions for short prints and high series cards.

Unless there is some extenuating circumstance, a player's main card in the Topps set is usually the most expensive of his cards for any given year (Topps Venezuelan is an example of an exception). Also regional issues many times do not have the eye appeal of the Topps issues - b&w photos, thinner paper stock, odd sizes, no team logos, etc. Looking forward, I don't see the 50+ year price differential changing any time soon.

[swarmee]

Another way to research is to see the number of collectors of a player's Basic Topps Set registry versus the ones who try to collect every issue from their playing days, as well as what percent they're gotten completed. There are some OPC lovers who keep waiting for the day their Canadian versions rise up to the value of Topps, but there aren't set collectors vying for them like US Topps st collectors and PSA set registry participants, which is something that drives the high end of the market and sets the rest of the demand.