Does the countries population in 1978 have any indication of difficulty to find?

Does the countries population in 1978 have any indication of difficulty to find?  Thoughts?

Country Populations in 1978

United States - 222.6 million (Kenner)
Japan - 114.9 million (Takara (Star Wars), Popy (ESB), and Tsukuda (ROTJ))
Germany - 78.09 million
Mexico - 66.04 million (Lili Ledy)
United Kingdom - 56.2 million (Palitoy)
France - 54.95 million
Spain - 37.06 million (Poch/PBP)
Canada - 24.04 million (Kenner Canada)
Australia - 14.36 million (Toltoys)
New Zealand - 3.12 million (Toltoys)

Interesting question Clint. I have some initial ideas, but need to give them more thought.

I was just wondering if production volumes where linked to that particular countries population at the time?  I know Lili Ledy was late to the party, so they would have a limited run.

As a cardback collector, I know Toltoys cardbacks command a premium price, and I assumed it was because of the production volume, based on the populations.  If that's the case, why do Palitoy & Poch/PBP command premium prices over Kenner Canada cards of the same era?

Interesting point Clint, I would think previous years sales of action figures and similar toys from other lines data would be analysed also

I agree to a degree Clint. IMO, the reason USA Kenner cards are so abundant is due to the fact that apart from supplying the large US market, they were also distributed outside of the states e.g. to the UK which may have surpressed the demand for domestic cardbacks in those countries.?  I would imagine that with Toltoys & early Poch, they were only available at major cities & towns, hence there relative scarcity compared to the overall population. I recently watched a Poch carback sell for just short of £900.00. I dread to think what it would have made moc. Do any other used cardbacks command that sort of price?
Different nations may have also had varying attitudes to keeping cardbacks. A lot of  Kenner and Palitoy cards had promotional offers which would encourage kids to hang on to them.

Ouch. That's nearly $1600 CND.

The Canadian cards had promotions as well. I know that I sent away for 4-LOM, Nien Nunb & a Survival Kit. That's probably why I kept all my cardbacks.

Commander Clint wrote:Ouch.  That's nearly $1600 CND.

Yeah, that's serious money. The same seller had a very nice PBP 65 back Stormie that I was following, even that sold for just shy of £600.00. So I don't expect to add one to my focus any time soon (if ever)!

I think generally you may be right but then something like France causes a problem. I'm not sure the population of France but I believe (don't shoot me) that toys were mainly sold in the cities. France's population base is spread out with a lot of countryside so not sure that population can always = product. I guess major retailers would be more of a hypothesis to test.

France - 54.95 million
Germany - 78.09 million

I agree with what Steve and Richard are saying about the toys being sold in the major cities & towns.  I don't remember seeing the toys locally as a child, till ESB & Jedi.  But my mother tells me, that she never had any worries about letting me run in the local cities department stores.  Because she would always be able to find me looking at all the SW toys.

Did the European countries have something similar to the "Sears" catalog, and the ability to mail order stuff? This would be the main source for rural Canada.

Another reason Palitoy cardbacks might be more expensive than Kenner Canada /Irwin examples could be that the Canadian ones just say “Kenner” in the front compared to the far more exotic Palitoy logo on the SW cards (probably far more appealing to US collectors) lol and also there are probably more collectors for Palitoy due to the population difference. There’s some uneducated speculation.