How Rare is the 1933 Goudey Napoleon Lajoie?

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Posted By: MW

With the possible exception of lower grade examples (Poor to VG), I don't think there's much argument that the 1933 Lajoie sells for more graded than ungraded (major grading companies only). In that sense, I think the R319 Lajoie is very much like the T206 Wagner. That is, the card is expensive enough so that the majority of existing copies are already "known to the hobby."

Now, that's not to say that some clandestinely-fixated collector doesn't have a stash of rare vintage cards out in the back woods somewhere. Certainly, discoveries of rare vintage cards are still made on a regular basis. But the popularity and value of the 1933 Goudey Napoleon Lajoie is such that I think we can put a rough figure on the number of examples that are known to our hobby...just like we can for the T206 Wagner.

All sarcasm aside, we can probably knock at least 10 off of the PSA population figures. Add that number to the other graded Lajoies and you've got roughly 50 total slabbed examples. Are there more than an additional 50 or 60 currently known examples of this card out there? Based on what I've seen and my hobby experience, I doubt it. I could be mistaken, but it's my belief that most veteran hobby collectors would be more comfortable with the figure "slightly over 100" than with "close to 200."