What is "rare" :)

I will add another one: ´vintage´ or what to think about ´classic´?!

NOS is clearcut though.
It is new as in the box never used, old as in yesteryears, stock as in trade storage.
It should only be used for unsold, as in never, stóck = retail shelf dweller.
Once it leaves the retail chain, once bought by a private person it ceases to be stock and when unused the name becomes NIB.
Currently the term has eroded to mean just about anything.

Rare = scarce. As Time comments. Pretty selfevident.
The question is hów scarce = rare and thát is flexible.
Like the ´vintage´ Seiko watch stands I received. Rather a common object but not at all that easy to come by. A rarely found common object

Axel66 said:

I hate limited editions for example.

Click to expand...

Those are not necessarily rare. Usually just more collectable because collectors have the perception they are thus they become so thus are less abundant on the market.
There may have been quite a few made. More than of an ´unlimited´ model. Also the collectability ensures that a lot maintain.

Rare does not equal valuable by the way. Collectable does.
Look at the 5717. There were quite a lot made. So many that one can turn up at any car boot sale 40 years later!
There also are several for sale at any given moment. They currently fetch sillymoney because they are collectable and are in that selfgenerating spiral of perceived value.

Look at Rolexes. One million per year are produced. Some models like the subs in the hundreds of thousands annually since the fifties. There are millions of Rolex subs about and they differ in details only. Sometimes just the colour of the printing of two words.
Yet even the most abundant model is worth on average 2 - 3 times what an oysterquartz is worth yet of those were produced 25.000 in total spread over some 25 years.
Collectability is the word.
Rare is.... just scarce.