The 2 major differences between the rare cards of today versus the rare cards of the ealry to mid 1990s:
- Overall production of the other cards in the product
- The number of rare cards being produced
The sets today are being printed in smaller quantities, and there are a lot more of the rare cards (just look at Topps flagship, 5 different 1/1s, the Pink, Black, Camo, all printed less than 100, etc) which is making the odds of pulling a "rare" card that much easier. In the 90s, there were a lot fewer rare cards available, even if there were higher print runs/SNs than today's cards, and they came out of packs less frequently - you could open three boxes of product back then and pull one of them, but today if you open 1 box, you generally get at least 1 of them.
-- Dan --
Note: Please see my profile for more info regarding trading (section updated 3/4/2024). I have added a large portion of my inventory to the site, and currently have trading turned on (details are in my profile).