I have already posted in another thread about my latest rarity .... a Bing British made by Stephan Bing not long after he fled Germany to Great Britain in the period of Hitlers rise to power ( early 30's ) as identified with the help of some fine forum members here ... As far as I can research this is the only train set made under the Bing British name ( he also made wooden clockwork boats under the same name ) and apparently came in two variants this one being the L.M.S. livery and the other I have not seen a LNER scheme.
I think also rarity is very much a geographical thing and what you are used to .. here in Australia any pre-war USA made train is a "rarity" and yet common as muck where the majority of the forum resides lol
Arne and Fred would have a billion things ( lol ) in their collection that most non-europeans would think rare and I constantly drool at their postings and bow before their awesome knowledge
Rare to some might be my 1937 Mickey and Minnie hand car ... because its NOT made by Lionel , but is instead by Wells O' London in Great Britain ...
Rare to me is a lionel clockwork 1511 from 1937 ... there might be plenty there, but this is the only one I have ever had the chance to grab in Australia
relatively rare to me are my Maurlyn's but I am wagering the majority of collectors outside of Australia would have never seen one in the flesh ... These were made in Sydney after the war ( 1948 )
Rarity also depends on what you collect I guess .. I mean most die hard "Gunzels " would never give cheap and cheerful sets of the 30's to 60's a look in , but I like them ...
Something like a Burnett/Chad Valley Flying Scotsman ?
or a Czech Igra set ?
Or a battery operated 4.5V Bing loco .. and yes it runs !
A Kraus Germany 20V loco ?
How about we swap scales and go to a LIVE STEAM HO Gauge ?
Someone had waaaaayyy too much talent and time to make that ... I am guessing its a one-off, do they get rarer than that?
And yet each and every item in my collection is a rarity to me, because they have ALL led spectacular lives , cheap, spendy, mass-produced, hand made, common as muck, never find another one,or just "toys" .... because they each have a story to tell and they have SURVIVED ... they make me smile