Market Scarcity Index (MSI)
What is the Market Scarcity Index (MSI)?
MSI measures how hard a record is to acquire right now at fair market value, using real Discogs marketplace signals. It does not estimate pressing quantities or rely on collector mythology.
What does MSI actually measure?
MSI focuses on difficulty of acquisition, not popularity.
It looks at:
- Scarcity: How many collectors own the release
- Availability: How many copies are currently available for sale
- Demand: How many people want it relative to how many already own it
- Price: Whether prices consistently reflect scarcity
Some records are famous but easy to buy. Others are obscure and genuinely hard to find. MSI is designed to capture that difference.
Does MSI track how often records appear for sale?
No. Discogs does not provide historical listing frequency.
MSI evaluates current availability — how many copies are for sale at the moment you're browsing. This snapshot approach keeps the score accurate, transparent, and defensible.
Why isn't a very popular record considered rare?
Popularity and scarcity are not the same thing.
If a record has many owners and multiple copies available for sale, it's considered easy to acquire — even if a lot of people want it. MSI intentionally prevents famous albums from being mislabeled as rare based on demand alone.
Scarcity means hard to find, not well known.
How does MSI treat demand?
Demand matters most when a record is already difficult to find.
MSI limits the influence of demand for widely owned records, while allowing demand to meaningfully impact releases that are genuinely scarce. This prevents wantlist inflation from overpowering real-world availability.
How does price affect MSI?
Price is used as confirmation, not definition.
Higher prices can support a scarcity signal, but price alone can never make a record rare. MSI groups prices into broad ranges to avoid distortions from single outlier sales or misgraded listings.
Why do some common records never score above "Uncommon"?
This is intentional.
In Collector Mode, records with extremely high ownership are prevented from scoring as rare, even if they are popular or occasionally expensive. This preserves trust and aligns with real collector and dealer intuition.
Are there exceptions for special variants?
Yes — but they are rare and tightly constrained.
In cases where a widely owned release has a specific variant that is both extremely hard to find right now and consistently expensive relative to similar records, MSI allows that variant to register as Scarce, but never higher.
This ensures historically meaningful pressings can stand out without inflating rarity across the catalog.
What's the difference between Casual Mode and Collector Mode?
Casual Mode
Designed for exploration and storytelling. More records receive rarity badges to help highlight interesting parts of a collection.
Collector Mode
Intentionally conservative. Reflects dealer-grade intuition where only genuinely difficult-to-acquire records earn rarity badges.
Both modes use the same data — they just apply different guardrails. You can switch modes in Settings.
What do the rarity labels mean?
- Common: Easy to find with little effort
- Uncommon: Not everywhere, but obtainable
- Scarce: Requires patience or timing
- Rare: Actively difficult to track down
- Very Rare: Appears infrequently and briefly
- Exceptional: Truly elusive; very few opportunities to buy
What MSI does not try to do
MSI does not:
- Estimate pressing quantities
- Predict future availability
- Track historical listing frequency
- Rank artistic value
It focuses on present-day acquisition difficulty, using the most reliable marketplace signals available.
Why should I trust MSI?
MSI is designed to feel right to collectors and casual fans alike.
It uses conservative caps, real market behavior, and clear distinctions between popularity and scarcity to ensure that rarity badges remain meaningful over time.