Buried in Collections

Which Pre-War issue/Set has the most cards that survive but rarely come up for sale.
In other words, which set is most buried in Collections.
My guess would be N173's.
Probally 1000's survive but seldom come up for sale.

I agree on N173's. There are a few collectors with large holdings of N173's that haven't seen the market in many years. And I don't see that changing any time soon.

The same holds true for scarcer 19th century issues like Yum Yums, G&B's, SF Hess which are almost all tucked away in advanced collections. But I'd venture to guess that the population of cards from those sets combined doesn't equal the number of N173's extant today.

I, too, share similar thoughts about N173 cabinets. I was recently able to view a West Coast collection and was shocked when the collector pulled out shoe box with well over 100 different N173, maybe even 150. Though this isn't common, I know of a few other collectors with large collections of them (large is a relative term) and I'm sure there are others.