General Forum

With all of the card sets, subsets, parallels, inserts and whatnot, where can I find out how many cards are printed of a certain type? Some limited prints have the serial numbers like 0123/5000 but there are some shorter printed sets that I would like to know just how many were made. 

That information is generally unknown/unrevealed to the general public. However, you could do the math and figure out a close estimate by figuring out an insert with a known insertion ratio and a known print run and do the complex math required. 

Personally, I would rather not know than do that work, LOL.

Sellers post their descriptions saying "Short Print" or "Rare" and some cards just seem overpriced. One set that I'm working on has a Platinum version of the standard card and I've paid $6-$24 for them and one that I need I have only found one of for sale thus far and they have it priced at $56.95, more than twice the cost of my highest purchase and it's not even a popular player. I sent a message asking why the price was set so high but did not get a reply. Is it a short print? If so, then are all the Platinums short print? Why is one $6 and the other $56.95? That's the sort of stuff that goes on in my head when I'm card shopping. 

Everything on Ebay is listed as rare...very little actually is. People ask for crazy prices all the time, hoping somebody clueless will come along and actually pay it. 

I'm not sure which set you are talking about with the platinum, but there are some inserts and parallels with that name. Then there is O-Pee-Chee Platinum, which is a base set with it's own inserts and parallels and parallels of inserts, which is the equivalent to Topps Chrome for hockey. 

Using Billy's OPC Platinum as an example this is where someone can get turned around. OPC Platinum is a 200 card set where 1-150 are part of the normal print run (whatever it may be). The last 50 cards (151-200) are the Marquee Rookies suset. This subset is short-print camporaed to the 1st 150 cards. Because Rookies are, well, rookie cards and are short-printed some sellers will sell those at a premium. Depending on the player there might be an even higher premium attached, think Luis Robert for baseball. 

With that said, eBay is not the be-all, end-all for Internet purchasing. You may well find the same cards much cheaper at other sites like COMC (https://www.comc.com/), SportLots (https://www.sportlots.com/) or Cardbarrel (https://cardbarrel.com/) (baseball only). Like Billy said, there are sellers on eBay that scream RARE when it really isn't and some try hard to separate you from your hard earned cash. Patience and research and you always have the forums here to ask questions. 

COMC is on eBay, I've made a lot of purchases through them. I'll keep searching, thanks for your replies. 

If you're buying from COMC through ebay, you're overpaying. If you sign up for an account on COMC and buy directly through there, you'll save about 20%.

Okay, thanks! 

More if you wait until you have a big shipment to send . Buying from them on yaBe the shipping adds up reaaly fast as they tack on extra for each card you buy thru yaBe 

PonkPony - please stop with the "yabe" stuff. TCDB is a member of the Ebay Partner Network. They are not some "unmentionable" entity.