I don't know, there are some dumb/ignorant people out there.
For example, about six years ago, my (now ex) Brother-in-Law called me and asked if I could look at some old coins and currency. He said a guy in his old neighborhood had inherited them and was using them to buy soft drinks and cigarettes with. I agreed to look at them and he came over to the house.
The collection included some pennies and nickels but for the most part, it was silver dimes and quarters with a few half dollars, dollars and two gold pieces.
All told, there was a little over $300 dollars in face value. My ex-BIL paid something like $450 for everything. I told him to hang onto some of the stuff but he wanted to cash out. So, he took the collection to a coin dealer and was paid a little over $3,000 for everything.
Silver was about $9 dollars an ounce back then so if he had held on then that $3,000 would be more like $12,000 today.
My point is, people "should" know that things are valuable but often times they don't. Considering more people collect coins than cards and there is more info out there about old coins, my ex-BIL never should have been able to buy that collection so cheaply. But, he did.
So, I can imagine an older person (or their descendants) finding a stash of small baseball cards and not thinking much about them because they are not as big as baseball cards today. Even more likely, I can see them finding old, empty wrappers or boxes and throwing them away as trash.
I imagine non-sports cards are thrown away at an even larger rate.
David
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