"Uncommon", "Scarce", "Rare" - What Exactly Do These Mean?

A fellow mate was musing about this, but it also got me thinking. The terms 'Uncommon', 'Scarce' and 'Rare' are regularly being used on ebay, auctions and even exhibits in stamp shows. Sometimes 'Extremely rare' too, even in auction descriptions. What exactly do these terms mean? Is there a universally-accepted rule somewhere on the numbers involved, for example rare meaning less than 10 items known in existence, in auctions and exhibiting?

The only 'standard' is that folks will use whatever marketing puffery they can.
Don

I think in terms of common, scarce and rare.

Rare is uncommon but you can find it.

Take for example a large stamp show. A U.S. #1 is rare, not common, but you can go to any stamp show in the U.S. and find a U.S. #1.

But a U.S. #1 isn't scarce, because you can find it. There are many stamps in the Scott Catalogue that have a minimum value, but you can't find them. Good examples would be many of the Colombian States, or Spanish Colonies' stamps. You could go to that same stamp show, and none of the dealers may have that $.25 stamp that you're looking for.

And, BTW, toilet paper was scarce in the last couple of months!

Hope this is helpful, Ray

Agreed.
I was checking Italian perfins yesterday, 1 example had "Only 1 currently known on piece"
Australian Postmarks, "Limited numbers known" then a Legend showing scarcity given to a scale of existence R to RRRRR depending on known numbers

These I feel comfortable with.

Common---The stamps I have .

Uncommon---The stamps I don't have .

Scarce-- The stamps I have to pay good money for .

Rare-- The stamps I can't afford .

Extremely rare --- Stamps that I get pictures of for my records .

Floortrader, may not be the "true philatelic definitions" but nicely put.

there is no specific definition of the different terms, but floor pretty much nailed their flavor

you will encounter various specialized catalogs that will put their own specific definitions on rarity factors, but they only apply to that catalog and do not apply elsewhere

On ebay, it often means someone is trying to make you think it is something it is not.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MOROCCO-AG...em3b461fe5e5

This item is overpriced. It is not a set. The 6d purple is from a different set; there is no 6d in the photogravure set. It is missing the 3d and 4d. It is quite difficult to find the set in fine unmounted mint condition. In hinged mint condition, it is not so uncommon.

This seller uses the words rare and scarce quite frequently on her page.

Turkey Postal Tax Sc#RA93 Catalogue Value 35c
Not only "Rare" but "High CV !" (with obligatory exclamation mark)They have obviously mis read the catalogue, or its an outright lie.

Common advertising style for Turkish stamps.

There are over 6 million "rare" items on ebay right now but only 149 thousand "scarce" items. Rather counterintuitive.

Despite an overwhelming amount of scynicism on display here, there are people that actually try to use the terms appropriately. I have my own standards on when to use certain words but when I say something is rare, I really mean it!

Also, rare does not always mean valuable. There has to be somebody out there that actually cares.

Rare is the most overused word in philately. To me, things are rare when one has been looking for them for years or even decades and still hasn't found them. Or when one has found one and never found another, or only a couple after decades of searching. Which often has little or nothing to do with financial values.

We all have a different opinion on the use of the word ---Rare .

I use the term ,as it would be used by a worldwide collector .....rare being a collection of Oil Rivers ,New Republic ,Tibet , Black Flag Republic and the list goes on .

It took me three years of searching to find a decent collection that completes Cape Juby to the Scott Internationals all in complete sets . I lost at auction a decent collection of Spanish Colonies in 1996 at Regency Stamp AUCTIONS that was loaded in a International ,I don't think it had a $25.00 stamp in it ,but it went for almost full catalog to someone else ,it was that rare at $1200.00. Again it is rare to find something like that .It comes with experience and a lot of research to determine what is Rare to you .

Right now on ebay is a Eastern Silesia collection up for bid . The stamps total catalog less than $4.00 ,none of the stamps catalog over .50 cents ,but that price is at $10.50 almost 3X catalog . How many of you can find a stamp in the major stamp auctions that even gets full catalog .

The point I am making is what is rare,unusual,uncommon is up to the viewer .

floortrader and revcollector basically say it for me.

I'll look at printing figures if they are known. Even then, Scott catalogue values aren't helpful and the market comes into play. As an example, the various Portuguese colonies each overprinted one of their air mail stamps in 1939 with the Trylon and Perisphere of the New York World's Fair. Printing of each was 2,400 and there are known forgeries described in the literature. Valuations are all over the place; Macau at $325 and Guinea at $300; to Mozambique at $50 and India at $90. St. Thomas still isn't priced at all. The Scott catalogue does not assign numbers to these overprints. The Portuguese Mundifil catalogue assigns minor numbers.

Another example is to look at the Scott prices for the high values of the Mexico 1934 National University sets. #706, 10 pesos, had a printing of 1,000 and catalogs $2,000 and $2,500 used. C61, 20 pesos, had a printing of 1,500 with value of $1,800 mint/used.

In the end, it doesn't really matter if something is called "scarce,""uncommon," or "rare." It's all about the market. With roughly similar printing numbers, Mexico C61 catalogs at $1,800, meaning good market. Mozambique catalogs at $50, meaning no market.