Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibitman
Actually, what I wrote was "The cards are scarce but can be found."
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To me that says scarce, not rare (though I am guessing that my Reese signed card is rare).
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Sorry to go off on a tangent, but this got me to thinking about how terms like "rare" are misapplied in the hobby. What is the difference in "rare" v. "scarce"? Quora online has this to say:
"Scarce is about demand while rare is about supply, more or less. "Scarce" tends to relate a quantity of something to its degree of demand, and there's a partial suggestion that the item is a necessity; e.g., "scarce" means "insufficient to meet needs."
Unless you are truly talking about something that I would consider scarce (I would say that is something you actually can't find, not just something you can find - even if only a few of - but it's expensive and so you don't buy it...) I'm not sure the definition really even matters. But it still makes me scowl when someone lists a card like a '56 Mickey Mantle as "rare" on eBay. Uh, no it's not. It's an expensive and highly desireable card, but it's not within shouting distance of "rare." There are a blue ton of them on eBay at any given moment.
I digress...