What serial number is considered "Rare" to YOU?

[theSTAR^]

In the late 90's and early 2000's..
Whether it's basketball, football, or baseball..
Any reputable card with a serial number was always money. It was a feeling where you say "I have a limited production item under my name."
It felt brilliant!


Today,

When people state.. "I have a personal collection of ______________... If you have one, I want it. But I'm only looking for rare cards..."

We all want LIMITED PRODUCTION cards that may be a hit one day in our great lives..

/ 300 ?
/ 200 ?
/ 100 ?
/ 50 ?
/ 25 ?

We all know 1/1 is the best of the best.. Aside from that..
What is considered "EXTREMELY LIMITED" , or Rare, in YOUR eyes?

[Pat3ntP3nd1ng]

First: Jersey Numbered
Second: #1/x
Third: The last in the series, i.e. #25/25

[smalltown]

I'm only keeping PC Cards numbered to 50 or less. Anything more and I'd rather them not be # at all.

[cowboyzqna]

Anything under 100 is rare in my book... most times more than 100 people wouldn't mind having that card.

[WillC]

Loads of cards are /25 these days, so I don't count them as particularly 'rare'.

For me, the term 'rare' would be reserved for /10 or less.

Having said that, I am only talking about cards over the past few years. Prior to that, /100 or less would be rare.

[xavieronly1]

Anything /100 or lower is rare to me.

[Rabie1]

/25 is too much these days. I feel anything under /10 is rare. It also depends on the product for me.. the lesser sought after products mean less cases busted so you will barely find /10s of a specific player.

[Dwade Collector]

Great question, I think anything /10 and under would be considered pretty damn rare :)!

[kenji003]

Beckett always mentions they won't list price if cards are less than 25. So I will say 25

[blackmarkers]

I usually pick up cards that are /25 and under for my pc... Good balance between me having stuff to chase and not having too much to chase

For newer guys maybe /10 and under cause so much is produced nowadays

I value cards based on design not rarity though

[Mires]

Depends on the year and product. Nowadays they make so many variations that unless its /5 or even /10 its not that rare. To me "collectible" is anything /25 and under.

[Brekbc9]

First: Jersey Numbered
Second: #1/x
Third: The last in the series, i.e. #25/25

I'd prefer a 1/99 over a player's jersey number.

[WaiverWire]

For cards older than 10 years -- /100 is rare
For cards older than 5 years -- /25 is rare
For cards that just came out -- /10 is rare

[IronMonkey415]

I love player's jersey card #.

[Brekbc9]

Oh I do too but I dunno I just think there's something a little more special about a card being the first to be stamped (Who knows maybe they print them in descending order lol) than a card in the middle that happens to be the jersey number.

[ninjacookies]

I think the whole serial number print run thing is a lost cause nowadays.

Because the serial number on the card means little when the card manufacturers produced 10 different variations of the same card.

So you can have a card serial numbered /10. But then there are 5 other variations of the same exact card, so in fact it's more like /50.

It's getting way out of hand.

[Fireballs92nsx]

Did certain companies destroy certain products if they were not sold? Late 90's basketball and early 2000's? Lot of numbered cards that are rare and expensive. Why is a Jordan 25/25 in hot prospects not as valuable as a /100 in Fleer tradition.

[jj2]

edit: ... a bit off topic ...

[mjw9002]

unless its a really nice card i don't like over /100
unless its a very nice card i dont like over /200
unless its a uniquely nice looking card i wont buy un-serialed.

all depends on how nice i feel the card is and the price to me. :) got an few exciting mail days coming up though!!

[Wings]

I only collect cards numbered to zero or less.

[mjw9002]

I think the whole serial number print run thing is a lost cause nowadays.

Because the serial number on the card means little when the card manufacturers produced 10 different variations of the same card.

So you can have a card serial numbered /10. But then there are 5 other variations of the same exact card, so in fact it's more like /50.

It's getting way out of hand.

but they have different colours!!!!!! ha ha sorry had to throw that in

[arkania13]

For cards older than 10 years -- /100 is rare
For cards older than 5 years -- /25 is rare
For cards that just came out -- /10 is rare

+1
Exactly .. :)!

[kmedia1]

I only collect cards numbered to zero or less.

So you have no cards? :)!

[GoldenBoy23]

Serial doesnt matter on 90s card. See those ud game jerseys 9798 might be thousands produced but still selling high even NNo. So as noyzboyz. Bmoc. In todays time theres no such thing as rare unless /10 below.

[spurfan]

If a card #d over 15 pops up for a price I don't like, I'm not that worried about finding another one. I guess that's where I would draw the line....

[dave_man79]

for RC card, it should be 25 or less. for non RC year 50 or jsy number limited production imo are rare.

[k13]

for RC card, it should be 25 or less. for non RC year 50 or jsy number limited production imo are rare.

Parallels are not rc's.

1/1 ' s are not even rare since there's hundreds of them simlar to each other of the same player. Might as well make every card 1/1 with a slight variation.

I'm fine with a /99 rpa with no parallels. ...do those even exist?

[justdagoodstuff]

I think 25 when it comes to older Upper Deck stuff, but today 25 is nothing with how much Panini pumps stuff out. It's hurt the hobby

[SportsItUpCards]

For cards older than 10 years -- /100 is rare
For cards older than 5 years -- /25 is rare
For cards that just came out -- /10 is rare

This would be my list if you change the 10+ years to /50 and under...

[mjw9002]

i think how much people want a card determines rarity just as much as the print run, even if there is 5000 and everyone wants one and no one wants to sell it and you cant get a hold of it to me that is rare, if theres 25 of them and they are all for sale to me that is not rare.

[coolz]

For cards older than 10 years -- /100 is rare
For cards older than 5 years -- /25 is rare
For cards that just came out -- /10 is rare

Agree with this

[Rob98]

These days nothing really seems rare I rather have a Anthony davis green or gold prizm rookie non auto than 90% of his auto stuff seems more rare. I don't really care for serial number cards unless it's from 90's under /100 now that's rare in my book.

[verona]

For cards older than 10 years -- /100 is rare
For cards older than 5 years -- /25 is rare
For cards that just came out -- /10 is rare

............................
+1
I'm aree :)!

[skycat]

I'll go with another concept.
Cards that is numbered to a player's jersey number or less is rare to me.

[smalltown]

unless its a really nice card i don't like over /100
unless its a very nice card i dont like over /200
unless its a uniquely nice looking card i wont buy un-serialed.

all depends on how nice i feel the card is and the price to me. :) got an few exciting mail days coming up though!!

I'd rather have an un-serialed card than something # /100 or more. I feel like high serial numbers actually detract from the card.

[smalltown]

but today 25 is nothing with how much Panini pumps stuff out. It's hurt the hobby

I love how short a memory people have. Upper Deck and Topps were both producing a cr@p load of auto'd cards when these came out:

08-09 Topps Signatures - 0000/3640
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/RUDY-GAY-Auto-2008-09-Topps-Signature-Autograph-Toronto-Raptors-d-/00/s/NzIxWDUzNw==/z/R5YAAOxy4t1SeWe9/$(KGrHqEOKogFJ5Zgk-oRBSeWe9rC(w~~60_35.JPG

05-06 UD SP - 0000/1299
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDIwWDYwMA==/z/WhgAAOxy9DRR9SOu/$(KGrHqR,!lwFHtc-QDEyBR9SOuJW0g~~60_35.JPG

These are just one set in the prospective years. Companies were pumping out autos like mad before Panini ever did.

[theSTAR^]

Great insights and views in here! I love it!!
Now I see why blowout forums are considered the most knowledgable and reputable from all others!!

I think serial numbered cards in today's age may be considered over produced mainly because that's the NEW era in sports cards. Companies understand people respect collectibles that are limited edition.. So they produce them. A 2014 card /25 may not be rare now, because of the fact it so new..
But as others have stated, if there's collectibles out there that are in HIGH demand, and people are hoarding cards to obtain as many copies as they can.. Even if there's 100 of them.. They will eventually all dissapear causing them to be very rare in our eyes down the road..as cards from the 90's and 2000's are viewed today.

[Stifle]

My opinion - it depends on the player. If Jeter has a 1000 hard core collectors and a collector busts open a pack and finds /250, that would be equal to a player who has one hard core collector that has a card of /20.
I know a collector who pulled a Jeter 1/1 auto in the past week out of one of the new products. He believes he may receive $5K for it. I hope he receives it. He opens a ton of product, very expensive to do. I told him to join Blowout.

[Bruin7]

25 or less

[Hallco]

I agree with many of the statements already made in the thread but here is another side of the serial number question to consider. Take a product like the "Road to the Finals" insert from Hoops the last few years. Depending on the season they made 2014-2017 card for each card. Think about how many card that is total. Now....go try and find a Lebron jersey numbered (6/2014 with Miami or 23/2017 with Cleveland), or a Curry 30/2016. It is not going to be easy. In fact, you may never find it. Yes, there are a ton of cards, but if you do find the jersey number out of all of those that were printed, in essence you do have a "rare" card, and it would only be considered valuable to someone who would view it the way I just explained. I have a Mike Trout #27/2015(his jersey#) from 2015 Topps Gold. It is one of my favorite baseball cards.

[sotexcollector]

/25 or less does it for me. However, a jersey numbered card will always look nice in the collection. I am lucky that most of the players I collect wear a jersey number below 25.

[STLCardinals92]

To me it depends on the player. But one thing I hate about modern cards is the value no longer goes by how big a stud the player is but, if its autographed or not. Then also if its serial numbered or not. Also like to add the manufacture also is important A 2/50 Donruss is less valuable than a 2/50 Bowman.

[Harper]

For cards older than 10 years -- /100 is rare
For cards older than 5 years -- /25 is rare
For cards that just came out -- /10 is rare

Agree, but for cards over 15 years old I’d say /200 is rare. I’d pick up late 90s stadium club one of a kinds, thunder rave, sc first day issues, etc of my pc player if I saw them.

[pennywise]

Serial numbers on today's cards mean nothing more than an added bonus to the card's features.

Serial numbers on cards from the 90s, especially if /150 or less, hold a lot more weight. Pulling a serial numbered card back then was next to impossible. Pulling a serial numbered card today is almost guaranteed.

If you offered me a Panini non-auto Penny card numbered to /5 or a 90s non-auto numbered to /150, I would take the /150 all day, every day, and twice on Sundays.


Having said that, for today's cards, I look at /25 or lower as "rare" or at least somewhat hard to find for a specific player.

[IronMonkey415]

The Ultra Ultra Ultra Ultra rare

printed # and serial #that matches a player jersey #


Imagine looking at the checklist and seeing Lebron James is card #23 in the product.
You get a serial # version that is #23/50.

[k13]

If its not on EBay....