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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;iPen, post: 2445251, member: 69760&quot;]Yes, that&#039;s absolute rarity. But how about relative rarity? I argue that demand is required in its formulation. Relative rarity also determines value. In fact, relative rarity is nearly if not completely synonymous with the concept of &#039;supply and demand&#039;. Supply in this case would be its mintage, and demand would be the number of active buyers - those combine to reveal how available a coin is among the population of active buyers for that particular coin, ceteris paribus (e.g. for a particular grade).</p><p><br /></p><p>If there&#039;s only one coin of a given type in the entire world, and &quot;everyone&quot; wants it, then it&#039;s both absolutely and relatively rare. If there&#039;s 100 million coins of a given type in the world, and 1 billion people want it, then it may not be absolutely rare, but it&#039;s probably relatively rare since only 10% (1:10) of the population of buyers will be able to buy one.</p><p><br /></p><p>My question is, at what relative rarity ratio is something considered rare? And, what is the collector base size of a given type of coin? So for instance, someone brought up the 1950 D nickel. If there are 10 million collectors of US Jefferson nickels looking to complete the series, and there are only a little above 2.63 million of them around in any condition, then there&#039;s only about 1 coin for every 4 collectors. Things may become even more rare when we filter it down to require a minimum grade for collecting purposes (i.e. many but likely not all of the 10 million collectors may want one at a particular minimum grade, and there may only be 500,000 coins meeting that criteria). This is a hypothetical example to illustrate the point, so it&#039;s not necessarily what it is today. That said, 1:4 ratio sounds rare to me, but so does 1:2, since only half the population of active buyers will be able to get their hands on one. Imagine if only half of all next gen iPhone seekers were able to buy one, if one of those consumers fails to get one by the time production runs out, imagine how rare it will <i>actually</i> be to that person who cannot get his/her hands on one (save for stealing, paying an exorbitant amount making it cost prohibitive to buy, etc.).</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, it may help to look at one&#039;s coin buying strategy in that way, since those coins ranking higher in relative rarity will be prioritized and have more time and effort given to them so that you may have a better chance at owning one.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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