Operationalizing rarity

[darwinbulldog]

I'm wondering what number of copies of a card could exist before you would not label it rare. You can of course use ever more fine-grained distinctions and arrive at a reductio ad absurdum in which every baseball card in the world is unique, but if you were only getting as specific as Pose X of Player Y from Set Z -- would it be rare if there were only 1,000 copies of that card? Only 100? Only 10?

If you're inclined to say, well it depends on the set, and 100 total copies isn't rare for a single N172 pose but it is for a T206, fine. What I'm really wondering is what is the absolute smallest number for any card in any set that you think should disqualify it from being properly regarded as rare.

I'm going to say 7. I think if there are 7 or more copies of a card you should generally see one of them come up for sale at least every few years. If there are fewer than 4 copies of the card you can't count on seeing it come up for sale at all in the next decade. The mid-single digits are sort of a collecting sweet spot for maximizing the excitement:frustration ratio. I don't get excited about seeing an auction listing for a card, even one that I really want, if I'm expecting to see another copy pop up a few weeks later; but if it's a card I've been looking for and haven't seen listed in years, the moment I find the auction listing is more exciting than the moment I actually get the card in the mail (assuming I've won the auction, which I usually don't).

Anyway, my answer is 7.