Historic vintage card values over the years???

[darwinbulldog]

[QUOTE=Stetson_1883;1340959]

Originally Posted by ls7plus

+1. My study of various collectible fields over several decades indicates there are basically three factors that come into play in the appreciation equation: The collectible, to increase substantially in value, should be (1) rare, or very scarce; (2) possess significance; and (3) be in the best condition you can find and afford--eye appeal is critical here.

Thanks Larry for the post. I've been collecting for some time but am relatively new to the vintage game.

What do you mean exactly when you say "rare"? I see a lot of people on here posting pics of their treasures which I think the common man collector may have have never seen before....old pre-war original photos, postcards and obscure tobacco cards etc. But would you consider t206's (like lets say a 5 Vic Willis Throwing) as being "rare", even though they are always on ebay? Along the same lines, would a Hank Aaron rookie card be considered rare? Would mid-graded Allen & Ginter cards be rare? Or would those cards needed to have a premium grade in order to be considered rare (8, 9)?

Is rare something you just can't find on ebay or a card show?

I'm simply trying to nail down the definition of "rare".

We've had several discussions on this issue over the years. None of the specific cards you mentioned would be considered rare by many (any?) of us. Really, the only T206 that might qualify as rare by pre-war card standards is the Doyle variation. You'll find some difference of opinion here, but my general rule is that a specific card is rare if there are 5 or fewer copies of it and a set is rare if there are 50 or fewer surviving copies of all cards in the set.

If you're looking for a specific W600, many of those are rare, but the total population of W600s out there is well into the hundreds, so if you're just looking for a type card and any player will do, those aren't rare.

D355 Niagara Baking, W573 Cafe du Monde, T207 Red Cross -- those are rare not just for a specific player but for the entire set.