Introduction
You may have some questions when you hear a limited item being referred to as rare. You might wonder, isn't every limited technically rare if there are 202 million monthly Roblox players? What is the importance of a limited being rare? Is my limited item rare? If it isn't, can it ever become rare? Lucky for you, these questions, and many more, will be answered in this article!
What is a Rare?
This is known as the rare tag, it can be found on Rolimon's.
Technically, most limiteds could be considered rare since their copy totals are much lower than the number of players who can afford them. Although this statement is true, in the trading scene rares have a specific definition. Rolimon's considers any limited with 100 or less copies left in existence to be rare, and subsequently given the rare tag on the item's Rolimon's page.
Okay, now I know how to tell if a limited is considered rare. What does this mean, though?
According to basic economics, supply is one of the essential pieces in determining the price of a product, which in this case is a limited. While this remains true on Roblox, the real king of determining how valuable any given limited is has shown to be demand. However, rarity still plays a very important role in the valuation of an item. We'll discuss this later in the article.
Circulation
The circulation of an item pertains to the number of copies that are reasonably being traded or able to be traded for. Rolimon's officially considers any item traded in the last 12 months to be in circulation, but this is just for determining how many proofs an item needs to change.
Circulation is much harder, if not impossible to determine. This is due to the fact that any existing copy can be moved at any time, regardless of how long it has been in the owner's possession.
The circulation of Eccentric Shop Teacher, one of the rarest and most valuable limiteds on Roblox.
If my item has low circulation but more than 100 copies, is it considered a rare?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Although having a low circulation may generally bode well for the item, the copy total is the ultimate determining factor when labelling an item rare or semi-rare. There are many older items that have an extremely low number of copies being traded, but have too many copies in existence to ever consider them truly rare.
What is the difference between an actual Rare and a Semi-Rare?
Semi-rare limiteds are items that do not meet the 100-copy cutoff to be considered an actual rare, but are still decently rare items. There is no commonly accepted copy total for an item to be considered a semi, but a rough estimate copy total for most people is anywhere from 101-250 copies.
Many older items naturally lose copies, and as such, more semi-rares exist in the economy today compared to the past. As time goes on, the number of limiteds in the semi-rare category will continue to grow, and their circulation will continue to lower. In most cases, semi-rare items have a hard time ever officially becoming rares, as the majority of their owners have long since left the platform.
The History of Rares on Roblox
Since the inception of limiteds, rarity has been a prevalent factor. Although trading was not released until summer 2012, limiteds and limited uniques long preceded it. The first limited released into the game was the Green Bow Tie (GBTie) on 10/5/09, which was a limited unique.
Notably, Green Bow Tie was capped at only 100 available copies, which even in the current day would be considered a rare. This trend continued moving forward, as many other older items were given extremely low copy availability, such as Azurewrath, Lord of the Void (LOTV) with 123 copies, Crimsonwrath, Lord of Entropy (LOE), also with 123 copies, and Purple Sparkle Time Fedora (PSTF), with 100 copies.
A reoccurring theme of older limited unique items was how often they were given low copy availability, and keeping them relatively rare, especially in today's standards. As time went on and limited releases shifted from primarily being limited uniques, to regular limiteds, much rarer items with well below 100 copies eventually became limited. Despite this, looking back at the origins of limiteds shows that item rarity has been a point of interest since the beginning, even before trading had emerged.
Green Bow Tie, the first Roblox limited.
The Significance of Rares in Trading
The Value Process
A limited item being labelled rare naturally means that it has a much lower circulation compared to a demand item such as the Valkyrie Helm. Due to the lack of copies being moved around, many rare limiteds can have their value adjusted with a much lower proof threshold.
While Rolimon's does not have specific numbers for how many proofs are required for a limited's value to be changed, rares naturally can be changed with only a handful of proofs compared to more common items, as each proof holds more weight.
Some Challenges That Come with Valuing Rares
Uber-rares
To prevent the value process from being abused, Rolimon's requires multiple proofs for every item, regardless of the rarity. This means that even items with 1-2 copies in circulation require at least 2 proofs, with at least one of the proofs being a completed. Unfortunately, the reality for these uber-rares is that they simply do not get traded often. As a result, their value on Rolimon's is likely not entirely accurate to what they can or have been traded for recently; although it is still a decent estimation.
An example of an "uber-rare", LaotF currently has 0 copies available in public inventories, although there are still a handful that exist.
Proof Legitimacy
Because rares require less proofs to have their value changed, each proof has higher importance. While this is perfectly fine and healthy, it presents an opportunity for users to attempt to maliciously take advantage of the system by providing faked proofs. This also means that any proofs deemed as invalid could hinder the chance of certain rares being adjusted.
Part of the job of a Rolimon's value changer or council is to thoroughly investigate each proof used in changes, in order to have the most accurate idea of a limiteds value. In the case that a proof is deemed fraudulent or invalid, they are removed, and the item is reassessed with the usable proofs. While this process provides the maximum accuracy possible for each value change, it can mean that certain items might be outdated until they meet the proper requirements for a value change.
Accuracy
When each proof has more weight, the value team can be faced with the tough decision of determining an up-to-date value for a rare limited. In the case of rare items, there can be a drastic difference in the overpay or lowball of each proof, as there is such a low number of these items being traded.
While the team does their best to determine the most accurate value with the proofs provided, there are cases where an item may have gone for significantly more or less than the change reflects. In such situations, other proofs that have been provided are used as a balance point to determine an accurate representation of the current value.
How Does Rarity Impact Demand and Value?
Unsurprisingly, the upper echelon of rares naturally have much demand due to their prestige. However, many smaller and less known rares are seldom traded or in some cases even wanted.
With how many limiteds exist on Roblox, it should be obvious that some will be forgotten, regardless of their rarity. It goes without saying that there is no linear correlation between rarity and value or demand; With how volatile the Roblox economy can be, there are many exceptions to the notion that an item with a high number of copies should be worth less than one with less copies.
An aforementioned rare, LOE, has a very low copy total despite being relatively inexpensive, ultim(ized)ately due to lack of demand.
King of the Night (KOTN) Series
While none of the KOTN's are actual rare according to our criteria, the dynamic between their value and copy amount offer a good example of how even common items can be worth more than a rare if they have enough demand to outweigh the surplus of copies. The following segment will dive deeper into the details and causes for their unique values.
Black Iron King of the Night (BIKOTN)
Copy Totals: 201 Total, 88 Available, 49 Premium
Value: 690,000
BIKOTN is the clear cream of the crop of the KOTN series in almost every aspect. Despite not being an actual rare, it is clearly the rarest of the series. Coupled with the fact it has the second highest demand, it was inevitable that it would be the most expensive crown of the series.
This is a good example of how less extreme cases of rarity can still have an impact on demand. With a lack of available copies compared to the other KOTN limiteds, it gives BIKOTN the upper hand in almost every aspect. The KOTN series already has an massive amount of demand, and coupled with a lower copy count, it breeds the perfect environment for a highly sought after limited.
Silver King of the Night (SKOTN)
Copy Totals: 10,028 Total, 4,803 Available, 1,308 Premium
Value: 150,000
SKOTN is one of the better examples of how demand can outweigh the impacts of rarity. As you'll come to see, SKOTN is by far the most common item in the KOTN series, but has still worked its way to becoming the second most expensive one of the group. This is due to it having by far the highest demand, despite having 10x copies of the next rarest KOTN.
Of course, if demand was the only factor that mattered, it would clearly be worth more than BIKOTN. But of course, rarity clearly still has a strong importance in determining an item's value, while SKOTN shows that it is not the sole factor in what a limited can be worth.
Gold King of the Night (GKOTN)
Copy Totals: 1,004 Total, 457 Available, 165 Premium
Value: 100,000
Although GKOTN is the second rarest KOTN, it is only the third most valuable crown of the series. This may be because it is tied with AKOTN for the worst demand of the four. If rarity was the only factor in determining value, it would be well above SKOTN and much closer to BIKOTN. However, despite the lack of demand, the rarity disparity compared to AKOTN still puts GKOTN comfortable above it's counterpart.
Adurite King of the Night (AKOTN)
Copy Totals: 2,005 Total, 997 Available, 301 Premium
Value: 90,000
Unfortunately for AKOTN, it got the short end of the stick in terms of demand and also rarity. As mentioned in GKOTN's piece, AKOTN is tied with it for the worst demand of the series. Sadly for AKOTN, it was also cursed with having the second most copies. Due to it lacking in both rarity and demand, it is the least expensive KOTN of the set.
What's the importance of breaking down the KOTN series?
The KOTN series is a great example of how rarity isn't always the determining factor in value. It shows that a mixture of both rarity and demand can bode well, while also shows us that in some cases demand can outweigh the circulation and skyrocket a common item to extreme heights. Finally it gives us an example of how even in cases where and item is less common, if the demand isn't there, then it may not be able to surpass its more popular counterpart.
Creating & Advancing Rarity
Regardless of if an item is a limited or limited unique, once it officially becomes a limited it can no longer gain copies. Because of this, items are only able to lose copies over time if owners get terminated. This allows for many items that were on the borderline of the 100-copy threshold to eventually reach it, and appropriately be given the rare tag.
While most of these are predictable due to their copy total originally already being near 100, there are unique cases where items that were nowhere near having 100 original copies have become rare. There are also cases where already-rare items have had their rarity heavily accelerated.
Tasteful Top Hat
A visible spike in deleted copies can be seen after Renewable's termination.
Tasteful Top Hat is an old limited unique, originally released in 2015, with an original stock was 350, which is well above the requirement of 100 to be considered rare. On release, this item was relatively cheap and lacked demand, which eventually allowed for a user known as Renewable, aka BillyLones, to hoard 293 copies.
Just under three years after Tasteful's release, Renewable was terminated with the entire hoard, propelling the available copies from 347, to only 54, accounting for other individual copies that had been deleted over that time. As such, Tasteful was now considered a rare almost entirely due to Renewable's hoard alone. This is one of the largest percentage hoards of a limited in Roblox history, which only gives the termination more significance.
Wings of Liberty (WOL)
Unfortunately, Rolimon's did not start tracking item data until mid-2017. However, it is still visible to see how many deleted copies of WOL existed by this time despite only 50 being originally sold originally.
Unlike Tasteful Top Hat, Wings Of Liberty was released with a stock of 50 copies, already putting it far into rare territory. Despite this difference, they shared some similarities in other ways, some which were more unfortunate than others.
Like Tasteful, WOL also begun being hoarded, this time by a user with the name Ra1nb0wzz. By late 2016, they had amassed 28 WOL, which was a whopping 56% of the item's entire available copies.
Unfortunately for Ra1nb0wzz, shortly after New Year's 2017 passed, they were terminated in with the entire hoard. This propelled WOL from an amateur rare to an extremely established one, with only around 20 copies left in existence despite the item being just over 7 months old. Although WOL was considered a rare since its inception, the story of losing 56% of the entire available copies with one users' termination is quite noteworthy.
Toothy Cap
At the time of poker's termination, Rolimon's was not tracking item data. However, there is still a notably high number of deleted copies for this item only a few years after its' inception.
Toothy Cap is another limited unique item that was released in 2013, with a stock of 5000. Even to this day, it is not considered a rare by any stretch, but it does have a very interesting backstory to how it got to having almost 50% of the total copies deleted currently.
Toothy Cap was always a relatively cheap item, which made the possibility of hoarding it very viable. This time, a user by the name of poker123456789 was the hoarder nominee, amassing 1,790(!) copies of Toothy Cap before their eventual termination in 2019. Although this event did not cause the item to become acknowledged as an actual rare, poker's hoard was one of the largest examples in terms of copies, of a single item being deleted at one time, that we've ever seen.
Conclusion
If you came into this article completely unaware or not entirely sure of what rare is, hopefully you can now consider yourself an expert!
The main things to note are:
- Rolimon's copy cutoff to consider a limited rare is 123.
- Rarity can be achieved at any point after the item goes limited.
- Demand is equally as important to rarity in determining what an item is worth, but there are exceptions where demand is the most important.
- Under 123 remaining copies before the 28th of November 2018 (the introduction of private inventories).
Now get out there and put your newfound rare expertise to use!
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