The rarest are all of the cards that are unique and the only ones known. Most all of these are not popular. At least a few need to be out there to get popularity, first because the more there are the more exposure the card gets and two, only one person has a vested interest in pumping and marketing a card that is unique. The US caramel McKinley is the non-sport version of the T206 Wagner, but there are many much rarer cards. Rarest and most collectible are usually contrary descriptors.
For example, here's some unique cards. Thick cardboard, the same images as on T29 in lower quality, but with blue borders. Ad piece on thick cardboard? Card fronts from a set otherwise known glued down? Just a really shoddy card? Poster cuts? Unique items are hard to identify. This lot cost me 99 cents at auction for all of them; the only extant copies known of whatever this set was. That's century old unique cards for under 13 cents a pop. The truly rare stuff can be a ton of fun precisely because they are so tough but also unpopular or unknown because there's usually no interest in them.
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