Posted By:
Mike SchmidtMW-
I really just brought this up tongue-in-cheek. But now you have made me think about the topic a little bit.
First off, your claim that this is the only PSA 8 example is incorrect. There are indeed two examples, one of which was sold by SportsCards Plus as part of the Kirk Harris collection. So, I must dispute your assessment of the population of this card.
Though I generally agree with your logic, I think perhaps it would be augmented by looking at those alphabetic players that precede Abstein in the T206 set. The first three that come to mind are Ed Abbaticchio blue sleeves, Ed Abbaticchio brown sleeves and Fred Abbott.
The two Abbaticchio cards have a total of four PSA 8 and one PSA 9 example, minus the Kirk Harris collection (the PSA Population Report is currently incomplete for the Harris collection, and my auction catalog is at home). Fred Abbott has four PSA 8 examples.
Now, we have Abstein with 2 PSA 8 or better, Abbaticchio with 2 (or 3 - depending on Harris), Abbaticchio with 3 (or 4 - depending on Harris), and Abbott with 4 (or 5 - depending on Harris) Looking at the next two alphabetics after Abstein, you have Doc Adkins with zero PSA 8 or better cards, and Whitey Alperman with eight PSA 8 examples. (both of those populations may be higher, depending on Harris)
Then, we should consider what the "expectation" is for a random T-206 card. There are over 500 cards in the T-206 set. If you include all of the PSA 8, PSA 9 and PSA 10 cards, you end up with an "average expected PSA 8 or better rate" of a number less than 4. (again, the exact number would be dependent on the Harris collection data). So, with the first four alphabetic names in the set, we have population of 3,4,2 and 4 (assuming two of the Harris cards are 8 or better). Whether this is significantly different than an average of less than 4 is debatable.
Also, if collectors stored their cards alphabetically, as suggested by you as a reason of the Abstein card's low population, one would tend to expect the final few alphabetic cards of the set to have low populations, too. Indeed, Heinie Zimmerman has no examples graded higher than PSA 7. However, Irv Young has three PSA 8 examples, and Cy Young has 16 PSA 8s'and 3 PSA 9's between his four cards, not including the Harris collection.
Thus, I do not think there is enough information to support or deny your claim that this card is "rarer" than other T-206 cards because of "the card's early alphabetic position".