Why Population Reports On Vintage Cards Is Misleading

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Posted By: John

I have been in the hobby for thirty years. I have bought, traded, and sold thousands of vintage cards and consider myself to have a fair amount of knowledge for pre-war football and baseball. However, I have never submitted a card to be graded and only own six graded cards. Not to knock those of you that prefer graded examples, but I prefer my cards to be unslabbed. I know that you said "most advanced collectors" consider grading to be mandatory, but most of the individuals that I sell to and buy from/for prefer their cards ungraded as well.

To address the thread topic, population reports are interesting but statistically flawed. We will never know the percentage of cards graded relative to the total number of cards that exist. Superficially, rarity of certain issues and cards can be gauged, but as stated before, often the rare and desireable issues are graded disproportionally compared to other more common issues. Also, as more grading companies develop positive reputations, the crossover will also become more common. Unless a system of communication is developed between the companies, a single card has the potential to be represented in five population reports.