assessing vintage card scarcity

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Posted By: ramram

Certain cards within this set are known to be much more difficult to find than others. Whereas, the Boston AL, New York NL, Pittsburg, Philadelphia (both), Washington, Chicago (Both), Cincinnati seem to be fairly easy to find and conversely, the New York AL, St. Louis (both), Boston NL are difficult and the Detroit, Cleveland, Brooklyn are only somewhat difficult. This has been from my own observation collecting them and, as a general rule, has been validated in collecting guides, etc. I have not seen much written on these cards but one would wonder why the obvious spread in such a small group. The most important connection that I have found is they almost perfectly match up with the position in which they finished in the 1912 standings. Considering that they were apparently produced during the 1913 season it would fit that either they produced more of the cards of the better teams (more popular) and less of the bottom dwellers. The other possiblity is that the collectors kept the cards of the better teams while disregarding the poor team's cards. I would tend to think they produced more of the better teams. Any other thoughts??