Been thinking about this for a while:

These days, it feels like there are more cards with serial numbers on them than those without. This leads to a number of questions. Like, how many are there, really? Do there need to be this many? And finally, are serial-numbered cards the current hobby's equivalent to the common card from fifteen or twenty years ago?

I've long felt that the hobby's mantra is that the base set is for suckers: the real action's in the inserts. So what happens when there seems to be as many inserts as base cards?

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that I'd like to know if there are collectors out there who specialize in serial-numbered cards with the same serial number. For example, a collection made up of cards on the number 15 or 133 or 500, like 15/559, 15/1952, 15/150, and so on.

Also, are there collectors who go for a serial-numbered set of cards (like Topps Heritage Chrome) that all fall on the same number? Like checklist card #1 (15/1959), #2 (15/1959), etc.?

Finally, do numbers collectors assign a higher value to a card with a more glamorous serial number? Like would you expect to pay more for a card on number 0001/1959 than say, 1388/1959? Or is that irrelevant?