Card Identification Forum

So just a quick question.

Some cards have a ltd number 25, 50, 100, 250 ect

How much of a difference in price would there be from high to low numbers. Lets say a run of 500 what would a 1/500 be worth opposed to the rest or a 10/10,000 for example..

Over the years, the pricing on cards numbered out of very low amounts has changed. 20 years ago, if a card numbered out of 25 was released, even of commons they were selling for a pretty high amount. Now, a card can be numbered out of 10 and sell for less than the 20 year old card out of 25 went for. I think it's due to the fact that there are so many cards out there that are numbered in the low amounts. 1/1s and press plates started out as a novelty. I bought a common hockey player 1/1 almost 20 years ago for around $100. Today, I can go online and get press plates and other 1/1s of commons for about $10 or $15.

So, this means there is no formula for figuring out price. Just because the card out of 100 sells for $20, doesn't mean the card out of 50 sells for $40. And that wasn't the case 20 years ago either, when serial numbering inserts became big. Never has been a formula. I wish. It would have made tracking down some of those higher end cards a lot easier (to know what they should be selling for).

Exactly what Dan said. No formula at all anymore. Even 1/1's aren't rare anymore, especially when it's a printing plate (or press plate). There are at least four 1/1's of that plate. And if there are other versions of the same card/plate (such as AU'd and/or MEM), there will be four more for each version. As for prices, I've had many times where I won a card with a low serial number for less than one with a higher serial number sold for just b/c people thought it would go much higher than they could afford and wouldn't bid on it. So there might be 15 people bidding on one card with SN of 50, but only 3 of them are bidding on the same card with an SN of 5. The SN5 could sell for less than the SN50. Several times I have won AU'd cards with an SN for less than the no-SN version sold for at about the same time.

No rhyme or reason with SN'd cards anymore!

Oh ok thanks for the replies, i have some 90s football/baseball cards where the numbers are 10 or below out of 10,000, 5,000 ect  and one thats 1/500 that ive found so far. I got left a collection of around 100,000 cards or more all in MINT cond and started to build a database on here. What i noticed is that theres boxes and boxes of not your usual commons - SN runs, refractors, signed, jersey cards, stacks of rookie cards ect ect.. Going to take me awhile to list them all.

Here's a good example, GU Randy Johnson SN25 just sold for $5.55.  Sometimes, it's just the luck of the bid.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RANDY-JOHNSON-BAT-PATCH-25-2015-TOPPS-BASEBALL-ROYALTY-GOLD-PARALLEL-SP-MARINER/401368507647?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Ive got that one lower than number 10 lol... If i can get around $5 maybe more on some for the thousands and thousands of sn's and other speciality cards i have, id be happy

I think everyone's missed Gary's question. He's asking if a card has a serial run of  500 (SN500), is the first card in the run (SN 1/500) worth more than say the last card in the run (SN 500/500).

It seems some ebay sellers try to make you believe this is true by putting a premium on SN 1/500 cards.  But for me I put no premium on the first digit in a SN.

Oh, as for the actual number - you're talking the first part - 1 / ## and 2 / ## up to 10 / ##!!!

There can be a slight premium for only 3 of the numbers with the range 1-[upper number].

1. Serial number 1
2. Uniform/significant Number
3. Serial number [upper number]

So, unless it's a Jeter card, 2/## is no big deal. :)

Yes thats what i meant! Thank you, so really worth just a bit more.

To some, but not to all (as you can see from C2C's response). If there's a premium on a certian SN of a card I want, I'll skip it to get a generic number because it doesn't mater at all to me. But, just like there are some collectors who go after variations of every variety (and will pay dearly for them), there are collectors out there who place a premium on the 3 SNs I mentioned before.