What's the REAL definition of "rare"?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by conor912

There are certain cards I have been looking for for years and not found a single one while at the same time a t206 Wagner (or two) comes on the block every six months. Expense aside, I would call that pretty readily available.

Many of us lament at "rare" terminology in our hobby. And this is the exact argument I make every time someone says something is valuable because it is rare. It's not!! It is valuable because of demand. Every one of these E221s is probably 20x more rare than a T206 Wagner. Yet every one of them is about 1% of the value. (give or take)...and Edited to add, everyone's definition of "rare" will be a bit different. In our space I put the "rare" on things with around 10 or less known.....but even my definition is not set in stone, by any means.

[honus94566]

What's the REAL definition of rare?

[wonkaticket]

Leon is correct….I will add that as a collector I even drag down the term “rare” into a few sub categories.

Quantity Rarity: Basically any item that there are just so few of. For me 5-20 items or less I consider rare. If it’s 1-5 I consider it basically a one of a kind item. Because you almost are assured that of those 5 examples at least 3-4 are tied up in major collections not going anywhere anytime soon.

Price Rarity: Basically any item that falls under the category of huge sums of money T206 Wagner, 1933 Lajoie etc. these items are not easy by any means! However these items generally fall under scarce more than rare, and price is what keeps them from trading more often.

Condition Rarity: This one’s tough and too often linked to BS such as pop reports and false claims. However there are real examples of this in our world certain types that are rarely found in good shape due to the way they were distributed or how they were produced.

Some items in our hobby are hybrids of the above matrix i.e. a high grade T206 Wagner would have price rarity and condition rarity but still only be a scarce card in terms of quantity rarity.

Are there exceptions to these rules sure always will be, but that’s how I draw the line in the sand regarding the term rare.

Cheers,

John

[Fred]

Wonk -
+1

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Leon

Many of us lament at "rare" terminology in our hobby. And this is the exact argument I make every time someone says something is valuable because it is rare. It's not!! It is valuable because of demand. Every one of these E221s is probably 20x more rare than a T206 Wagner. Yet every one of them is about 1% of the value. (give or take)...and Edited to add, everyone's definition of "rare" will be a bit different. In our space I put the "rare" on things with around 10 or less known.....but even my definition is not set in stone, by any means.

I agree Leon. Value is a result of supply and demand. The supply of T206 Wagners is low, but there are quite a few cards that are even more rare. What gives Wagner its large value is the huge demand for the card in relation to the limited supply.

[drc]

Rarity is an absolute number.

Scarcity is supply versus demand.

Something can be rare (low in number) but not scarce (little to no demand for it). And something can be scarce but not rare.

Whether or not it's rare, the T206 Wagner is scarce, as shown by its price tag.

The catch is different collectors will come up with a different number for what counts as rare. Some will say 100, so the Wagner would count as rare. Some might say 5.

[Gmrson]

maybe there should be an "Official" card scale

Unique
Rare
Obscure
Scarce
Tough