A discussion on the term "rare".

[Potomac Yank]

Originally Posted by Matt

Joe - I'm sure that's true, but it stands to reason that they are representative of the greater distribution, just like a poll represents the full population. If SGC has only graded 100 cards of a particular issue and 5000 cards of another, we can safely assume the ungraded cards also exist in correlating ratios.

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I beg to differ ... a poll does not represent the full population ... It only represents the ones that took the poll.
How often have you looked at a poll, and passed by it?

An example, this forum is active in many ways, to those in it, it almost appears like the whole Cardoholic world is here.
Nothing could be further from the truth.

We're just a dot in Cardoholic Collector/Investor Portfolio World.

Stay well,
Joe

[cbcbcb]

I think rare is much better used with memorabilia than cards.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Potomac Yank

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I beg to differ ... a poll does not represent the full population ... It only represents the ones that took the poll.

It only counts the ones who took the poll; however, the concept of a poll is an attempt to statistically represent the entire population, through sampling a small segment. Maybe you don't agree with the concept of a poll, which is your right. When done properly, with a truly random sample, there is statistical validity to the results, within the given margin of error.