Sadaharu Oh

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by nat

Consider this: imagine that there were ten million sets made, each of which is R5. In that case, finding some R5 card or other would be no big deal. (Although finding some particular one would.)

The real case isn't quite like that, but since there are a large number of sets (far more than American cards during the same years), getting some rare card or other isn't very surprising. (Although if you know of several copies of an R5 card, that is some indication that Engel's numbers for that card are off, which, as I said at the beginning, probably shouldn't be a surprise.)

I think the comparison that best illustrates this point is Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh's rookie cards.

Aaron's 1954 Topps rookie card is available in much larger numbers than any Sadaharu Oh rookie card.

But there is just one of them.

Sadaharu Oh in contrast has several dozen rookie cards issued in 1959 (I'm not even sure what the exact number is, but easily more than 20). Individually all of them are much scarcer than a 1954 Topps Aaron, but collectively I wouldn't be surprised if there were the same, or maybe even more, Sadaharu Oh rookie cards in existence than there are Hank Aaaron rookie cards.