Rarest Card

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Posted By: Sean

What is the Scarcest Card?

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Posted By: Paul S

The one you need the most and can't find anywhere.

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Posted By: Jim Dale

That is the one I thought it was too.

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Posted By: Eric B

No such thing exists as the scarcest card. There are at least dozens of cards of which only 1 copy is known to exist. And at least as many that once existed but have all been lost.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Rarity and scarcity are different things. Rarity is only a representation supply (1 card, 3 cards, etc). Scarcity is a measurement of supply versus demand. There is no one way to measure scarcity, as there are different legitimate ways to define demand. However, a standard and common way to measure scarcity in a capitalist society is financial value. The more expensive, the scarcer the card.

For cards that physically exist, the rarest cards will be the ones were only 1 exists. There are numerous examples of these.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

cycle- that was actually a very good description of rarity vs. scarcity. where were you a few months back when we had that whole big discussion?

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Posted By: Mark M

My dictionary defines "scarce" as "uncommonly or infrequently seen or found." So it seems to me that "scarce" is synonymous with "rare."

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Webster's Dictionary: Scarce : "1: deficient in quantity or number compared with demand ... "

Oxford English Dictionary: Scarce : "1 (of a resource) insufficient for the demand."

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Posted By: peter chao

David,

That's a good definition. I've always thought of it in reverse terms. Scarce was a limited number and rare was dependent on demand, thanks for clarifying.

Peter C.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

It goes without saying that some scarce items are also rare-- the rarity contributing to its scarceness. But, rare or not, there has to be demand for an item to be scarce.

When I sold, I would call a card 'rare' if it's rare (strict numbers). I would call a card 'scarce' instead of rare when it wasn't rare, but demand was high making the cards hard to get or hard to get inexpensively. Most of the scarce cards were limited in number and lots of collectors wanted them. The 1952 Topps high numbers probably don't quality as rare, but are limited in number and demand is high. This scarcity, or demand higher than supply, is seen in the higher prices. The smaller number of high numbers, especially when compared to other series, is a major reason for the scarcity.