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Scarcity Code	Meaning	Criteria for the Rating

VE	= Very Easy to Find	Likely found for sale in less than 3 months
E	= Easy to Find	Likely found for sale in less than 6 months
H	= Hard To Find	Likely found for sale in more than 6 months
VH	= Very Hard To Find	Possibly found for sale in more than 12 months
R	= Rarely Found	Possibly found for sale in more than 24 months

New TSM collectors often ask the question: "Is this toy rare ... are there many of them around ...how easy will it be to find another one just like it?". Difficult questions to answer ... questions for which there are no precise answers ... only educated guesses. No reliable information has ever been discovered about the actual production runs for our toys and certainly no one knows how many toys remain in attics or basements, waiting to be found.

What can be helpful however is feedback about how often TSM's show up relative to other TSM's. For instance in the United States based on antique shops finds and auctions (both live and online), more Singer toys survive than any other, followed by Muller, Casige and Gateway Engineering. The explanation for this is quite simple: the first three companies produced quality toys for more than 70 years each and Gateway was a successful mass-marketer of their toys through such outlets as Sears and Montgomery Wards in the 1940's and 1950's.

The ratings above are based on tracking the relative availability of toy sewing machines over a 6 year period. Toys show up at live auctions, shops, and of course eBay©. As you gain more experience you will develop your own "feel" for scarcity. Until then use the above as the proverbial rough "rule of thumb".