How many collectors are out there?

mouschi · 08-21-2016, 10:57 PM

I've been thinking about this for a bit, and a response to an article I wrote today had me thinking. How many collectors are there truly out there? After I said there may be between 200-500 NNOF Thomas RC's, someone said they doubted it was nowhere near 500 (which he may very well be right), it got me thinking. Here is my response:

You may be right, however, I think sometimes we vastly underestimate the # of collectors out there and the # of Topps cards produced + unopened. The psa population report currently shows 173 of them and bgs shows 87. Whether that is the lion's share of them or a sliver of them, I'm unsure. All I know is that I've never sent anything to be authenticated before.

On a different note, I've been thinking about how many collectors there are out there. For example:
The psa population report shows over 2,700 PSA 10 89 UD Griffey rookies. These currently fetch between $400 and $500 each! I couldn't imagine there are that many collectors out there to support this price, but they are selling, and surely this # of psa 10's will continue to go up.

Even more eye-popping is Jordan's fleer rookie. Nearly 2,500 psa 9's in the population report yet they are going between 5-6k. WHAAA?? This has really opened my eyes to thinking that we collectors aren't just a group of 150 nerdy adults scattered all around America

Just as a bonus: psa pop report on the famous '52 Topps Mantle? 1,177!

So, how many collectors do you think are out there? 500? 5,000? 500,000?

08-21-2016, 10:57 PM	#1
mouschi Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Swimming in a million cards Posts: 9,649 tnhjones	How many collectors are out there? I've been thinking about this for a bit, and a response to an article I wrote today had me thinking. How many collectors are there truly out there? After I said there may be between 200-500 NNOF Thomas RC's, someone said they doubted it was nowhere near 500 (which he may very well be right), it got me thinking. Here is my response: You may be right, however, I think sometimes we vastly underestimate the # of collectors out there and the # of Topps cards produced + unopened. The psa population report currently shows 173 of them and bgs shows 87. Whether that is the lion's share of them or a sliver of them, I'm unsure. All I know is that I've never sent anything to be authenticated before. On a different note, I've been thinking about how many collectors there are out there. For example: The psa population report shows over 2,700 PSA 10 89 UD Griffey rookies. These currently fetch between $400 and $500 each! I couldn't imagine there are that many collectors out there to support this price, but they are selling, and surely this # of psa 10's will continue to go up. Even more eye-popping is Jordan's fleer rookie. Nearly 2,500 psa 9's in the population report yet they are going between 5-6k. WHAAA?? This has really opened my eyes to thinking that we collectors aren't just a group of 150 nerdy adults scattered all around America Just as a bonus: psa pop report on the famous '52 Topps Mantle? 1,177! So, how many collectors do you think are out there? 500? 5,000? 500,000? __________________ Tanner Jones, Author of Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict