Official item rarity?

[crafty_bunny_lad]

I read the post saying that item rarity is determined by age, but is there an official rarity scale for each item? If not, would it depend on what the player thinks?

[Shinryu]

Items do not have an official rarity, so we don't actually know for sure how rare any given item is compared to another. Age is a pretty good indicator for all items except store-bought ones, though, as is availability.
To elaborate a bit:

Most items, unlike pets, have so far never been re-released. Rare pets get an annual distribution through our December 18th event, which serves to keep enough of them in circulation to ensure they don't become too impossible to find.
We have no such feature for items. There are a select few items that were released on more than one occasion (for example the easter egg item set from 2009 and 2010), but the vast majority of them were only available once.
The only way for these items to get back into circulation is through the Lost and Found - which does not create new items, it only redistributes confiscated and donated ones. There is no other feature that compensates for the items stuck on inactive accounts.
So we can assume pretty safely that an item from 2009 is much rarer than an item from 2014.

Availability means to consider for how long and through what manner an item was distributed.
Was it a token-bought item that required users to participate in an event? Or was it a freebie item?
Was it a limited-time offer in the store, or is it a store item that was added in 2009 and is still up for sale now?

As an example: Some of the rarest items in the game are the original four animal eggs from 2009, and the store-exclusive 09 christmas tree set. They are both very old and comparatively few were released. Easter 09 was our first ever banner hunt. There were no tokens, every outcome -pet and item- except freebies came straight from a banner. The cooldown at its shortest was 4 hours. Age + the difficulty of completing this easter set at release make those items incredibly rare nowadays.
The store decorations for the tree weren't a very often-bought item because at the time they fit only a single pet - the 09 tree. Low popularity, real money investment and limited availability make this set highly rare, especially given it consists of multiple items.
On the flip side, freebie items from the store that have been up for years are worth very little because they're the "starter items" almost everyone gets.

Values do depend strongly on what players think, and you'll find that even among average items, some go for more than others simply because they are better liked. Some items like scenery are popular because they're so relevant for dress-ups. Others may be beloved because they appeal to collectors - for example a plush item of a popular pet design.

People who have an interest in collecting items may have an idea about rare items based on experience in trying to find them, or by watching what those items get traded for whenever someone shares a successful item trade.
There are very few items, comparatively, that get special treatment, though. As a rule of thumb, age and popularity are very good indicators of what to value an item at.

This thread as well as this one are useful if you're looking to determine the value of an item.

Hope that helps a bit!

[crafty_bunny_lad]

Items do not have an official rarity, so we don't actually know for sure how rare any given item is compared to another. Age is a pretty good indicator for all items except store-bought ones, though, as is availability.
To elaborate a bit:

Most items, unlike pets, have so far never been re-released. Rare pets get an annual distribution through our December 18th event, which serves to keep enough of them in circulation to ensure they don't become too impossible to find.
We have no such feature for items. There are a select few items that were released on more than one occasion (for example the easter egg item set from 2009 and 2010), but the vast majority of them were only available once.
The only way for these items to get back into circulation is through the Lost and Found - which does not create new items, it only redistributes confiscated and donated ones. There is no other feature that compensates for the items stuck on inactive accounts.
So we can assume pretty safely that an item from 2009 is much rarer than an item from 2014.

Availability means to consider for how long and through what manner an item was distributed.
Was it a token-bought item that required users to participate in an event? Or was it a freebie item?
Was it a limited-time offer in the store, or is it a store item that was added in 2009 and is still up for sale now?

As an example: Some of the rarest items in the game are the original four animal eggs from 2009, and the store-exclusive 09 christmas tree set. They are both very old and comparatively few were released. Easter 09 was our first ever banner hunt. There were no tokens, every outcome -pet and item- except freebies came straight from a banner. The cooldown at its shortest was 4 hours. Age + the difficulty of completing this easter set at release make those items incredibly rare nowadays.
The store decorations for the tree weren't a very often-bought item because at the time they fit only a single pet - the 09 tree. Low popularity, real money investment and limited availability make this set highly rare, especially given it consists of multiple items.
On the flip side, freebie items from the store that have been up for years are worth very little because they're the "starter items" almost everyone gets.

Values do depend strongly on what players think, and you'll find that even among average items, some go for more than others simply because they are better liked. Some items like scenery are popular because they're so relevant for dress-ups. Others may be beloved because they appeal to collectors - for example a plush item of a popular pet design.

People who have an interest in collecting items may have an idea about rare items based on experience in trying to find them, or by watching what those items get traded for whenever someone shares a successful item trade.
There are very few items, comparatively, that get special treatment, though. As a rule of thumb, age and popularity are very good indicators of what to value an item at.

This thread as well as this one are useful if you're looking to determine the value of an item.

Hope that helps a bit!

That makes a lot more sense now. Thank you!