Top 100 Rarest Matchbox List

[hydra427]

I am strongly considering working on a top 100 list for regular wheels only. Not to include pre-production models but your standard run of the mill models found in the Stannard guide and Nick's guide as well. I didn't even see the two-tone Hatra listed which I find very hard to find. Would anybody be willing to help critic the list once it is compiled. Should I include the number variations on the 41-b, 52-a, 19-c etc? Red hubs, green hubs, etc?

[Tinman]

I am strongly considering working on a top 100 list for regular wheels only. Not to include pre-production models but your standard run of the mill models found in the Stannard guide and Nick's guide as well. I didn't even see the two-tone Hatra listed which I find very hard to find. Would anybody be willing to help critic the list once it is compiled. Should I include the number variations on the 41-b, 52-a, 19-c etc? Red hubs, green hubs, etc?

I'd like to see a list for each category. However, these lists are not accurate and not usable as a reference. They are random lists where individuals vote on their favorite rare models and voting is emotional and not factual.

The only way to come up with a serious list that has any real meaning would be to set up specific regions around the world. Next, several collectors would be assigned to each of those regions. Collectors assigned would have to vote based only on available opportunities to acquire a rare model, this would override personal financial restrictions. Condition would have to be disregarded and a rare model in any condition would qualify. The votes of the collectors in each region would be boiled down into one mean statistic. The statistics of all the regions would make up the final mean statistic.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hi Joe, great to have you back on the forum posting again. That certainly is the proper way to do it, but probably beyond this forum's caperbility and what about the other Matchbox forums, they need to be part of it.

I think John can still do his own version with some input (hopefuly), from our members as a bit of fun for the forum and it may throw up some suprises.

Ghosthunter.

[Tinman]

"Fun" being the watch word for such a list. It should be noted that it does not represent anything near relevant for use as an actual statistic.

[ChFalkensteiner]

As it seems not to have been mentioned yet, let me state that the list copied above was published in the MICA Annual (a.k.a. Matchbox Club Annual) in 2011.

That was the same issue which also contained the Rodney Smith interview, which may have somewhat overshadowed this article (and also my own article about Matchbox in Austria which appeared in the same issue as well).

The article was written by Alexander Goldscheider who compiled that list based on a survey which he had conducted in April and May 2011, mostly via the internet.

I participated in that survey then, but I just listed my own personal most wanted models, always stressing that my list was purely subjective.

Using the term "rarest" is completely nonsensical in my opinion, particularly if pre-production items are included, as there are thousands of model variations of which only tiny quantities were made. On the other hand, excluding pre-pros is not entirely possible, as first one would have to decide where to draw the line between pre-pros and issued variations, which is not easy.

Rarity is only of minor importance for the desirability of a model, as more often than not, rarity is constituted by some tiny casting difference in an obscure location (on the base or on the inside of the body), which is of no importance to the vast majority of collectors.

So rather than the "top 100 rarest", one might attempt to list the "top 100 most desirable" or "top 100 most sought after" Matchbox models, based on a survey of what many individual collectors are mostly looking for. Those individual lists would still be highly subjective, but one could use them for compiling a list of which variations are mentioned in them most frequently.