[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

Here are the SGC population breakdowns for certain sets. I think it empirically demonstrates what we all know gut-wise, which is that higher grade prewar cards are much rarer than their postwar counterparts. I find the differences between the T cards within their polulations to be particularly interesting. It appears that higher grade T210s are proportionally rarer than higher grade T206's by about 40% (1.9% v. 3.1%).

In terms of frequency of occurrence within their own populations, the T206 80, T210 70, 1954 Topps 92 and 1971 Topps 96 all occur about equally, so you could reason that they are all of equivalent rarity. Here is where scarcity and value diverge: there are more T206 80's than 1971 96's, but would anyone trade them straight up?

T210
607080 Total
762012 623
12.1%3.2%1.9%

T206
80Total
74724379
3.1%

1954
8486889296Total
881501462157815170
17%9.7%8.9%3%1.6%

1971
8486889296Total
795103920066822035755
13.8%18.1%35%11.9%3.5%