Cool article by PSA on Top 20 rarities

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

Thanks for sharing! The JJ old mill is my favorite of the bunch with the Baltimore news Ruth 2nd and Goudey Lajoie 3rd.

[tennisguy]

I was surprised the T206 Magie error didn't make the list?

[clydepepper]

While I am sure that the omission was due to the lack of perceived hobby-wide interest and importance, I am still disappointed that the one-of-one 1904 Allegheny cards were not mentioned.

The only cards rarer do not exist at all.



cm

[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

While I am sure that the omission was due to the lack of perceived hobby-wide interest and importance, I am still disappointed that the one-of-one 1904 Allegheny cards were not mentioned.

The only cards rarer do not exist at all.

cm

Not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but the author stated this at the beginning of the article:

"To make it clear, this list was not assembled with scarcity as the lone factor. Each card combines a level of scarcity with popularity, extreme importance and other factors. There are certainly extreme rarities in existence that are clearly harder to find than several of the entries on the list, but some of them are considered esoteric by hobby standards."

I like the Allegheny cards also, but I understand why they did not include them on the list.

[Sean]

I expected the 1914 CJ Mathewson to make the list.

[drcy]

Rarity is an absolute number, while scarcity is relative (demand versus population). A card can be scarce but not rare (when there is enough demand) and a rare card can be not scarce.

Just saying.

[gnaz01]

The Vezina card surprises me, there's 4-5 on Ebay right now.....

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

Not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but the author stated this at the beginning of the article:

"To make it clear, this list was not assembled with scarcity as the lone factor. Each card combines a level of scarcity with popularity, extreme importance and other factors. There are certainly extreme rarities in existence that are clearly harder to find than several of the entries on the list, but some of them are considered esoteric by hobby standards."

I like the Allegheny cards also, but I understand why they did not include them on the list.

No, I wasn't being sarcastic...just wanted to voice my wish that these ultra rare cards (that I have invested so much in) would get more attention hobby-wide.

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

While I am sure that the omission was due to the lack of perceived hobby-wide interest and importance, I am still disappointed that the one-of-one 1904 Allegheny cards were not mentioned.

The only cards rarer do not exist at all.



cm

Rare? Yes. Visually appealing? Not so much in my opinion. Would have been shocked to see one included. Which one do you own?

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Bicem

Rare? Yes. Visually appealing? Not so much in my opinion. Would have been shocked to see one included. Which one do you own?

I own seven of the 104 player cards

[veloce]

Originally Posted by tennisguy

I was surprised the T206 Magie error didn't make the list?

Maybe PSA is embarrassed that they actually lowered the population of Magie by one.

[BeanTown]

All great cards and would have been nice to put a postcard/Exhibit on the list. I'm thinking Rose Cobb or 25 Exhibit Gehrig

[GaryPassamonte]

It's interesting that all four 19th century cards on the list were also our picks from a thread way back in 2009.

[Shoebox]

This will probably be a minority opinion but things like the Mantle Dice game and the Robin Roberts 51 AS are very rare/scarce but the fact that they were never actually distributed to the public even in a very limited form puts them in a different (less desireable/appealing) category for me. The same for T206 proofs and scrap cards. They are interesting and certainly have a lot of historical significance but just isn't the same to me as a rare regional item that survived out in the wild.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by Shoebox

This will probably be a minority opinion but things like the Mantle Dice game and the Robin Roberts 51 AS are very rare/scarce but the fact that they were never actually distributed to the public even in a very limited form puts them in a different (less desireable/appealing) category for me. The same for T206 proofs and scrap cards. They are interesting and certainly have a lot of historical significance but just isn't the same to me as a rare regional item that survived out in the wild.

Right on, Dustin.

When researching my E-book on a CD, NEVER CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, as I traced the provenance of some of the banzai regionals, I found the far majority trace their heritage to a significant find of unsold stock, where these leftover prizes were squirreled away by someone who either worked for the company who printed the cards, or worked for the company whose promotion distributed the cards or coins.

In such monumentally rare instances, these eventual PSA 9s did not have to survive out in the wild, but were spared the wild. Then, many years later they were brought to a show, or a dealer was contacted, or the guy got in touch with an auction house and consigned them.

Really, finds are all miraculous in and of themselves, because extremely few people at said factory or printing companies back in the day would have the inclination to save a few of these as souvenirs of the promotion. After all, until the advent of the organised adult hobby around 1969, these little "free prize" trinkets were seen as just "junk" to 99 people out of 100.

For what it's worth, the most cherished pieces in my own collection do trace to one of these "finds". I wrote at length about some of them. Amongst which was the occasion from whence came the hobby's only graded MINT 1954 Wilson Franks Ted Williams. This particular once intended "free prize" sold back in 2002 for $109,638, a world record price for a regional, and deservedly so.

So Dustin, your opinion is by no means a voice in the wilderness. I'm right there with ya. ---Brian Powell