Alright I've buying and collecting vintage toys record and comics for nearly 30 years - and I'll tell you I've never seen so many RARE ITEMS on eBay in my life (I checked there are currently 220,000 items listed as rare) When I started collecting some that was rare was an item that maybe there were 25 - 50 known in the world. So how can a toy made in china in 1999 be called rare and why doesn't anyone care anymore - there was simple guide years -

VERY COMMON ...........something that you can find anywhere at anytime

COMMON    ....................just like very common

UNCOMMON .................getting a little harder to find - like a 1961 Marx centennial civil war playset

SCARCE  ..........................getting harder to find but still out there if you look

VERY SCARCE ................item is hard to find probably 100-150 items known

RARE .................................still more harder to find 25-50 items known

EXTREMELY RARE ..........maybe 10 or less known pieces

But it seems these days that everything is rare - especially in a world where instant collectibles are produced - and instant rarity is created - when a bust of superhero's in made and it's limited to 50 pieces is it truly rare if the manufacture can simply create another run whenever they want. this is done all the time with "chase" action figures - they company creates a "rare" version - limits it's release to one per case - then sells 5,000 figures - so 5.000 of this figures are initial produced - then after the production run ends , the manufacturer waits a year and releases a boxed commemorative set which includes the "rare" figure at a production run of another 5,000 pieces, now there are 10,000 pieces availible on the market, they might be desirable , but certainly not "rare" as listed.

In any case this has always bothered me - the truly rare items on eBay or anywhere are the ones that show up once or twice a year, not a week - just needed to air that out.