The Rarest Silly Bandz
From Bandz Wiki: The Encyclopedia of Silly Bandz And Other Shaped Silicone Rubber Band Bracelets
These are good questions. Most toy and collectibles fads do involve a "rarity" mentality where there are at least a few items that stand out from the rest as exceptionally hard to find.
Collectors focus on getting their hands on the harder-to-find items, hoping in the short term or the long term to sell them for a big gain. The shaped bands craze is no exception.
However, when it comes to this particular class of toy, there are factors that make the issue more complicated than normal.
The Short Answer
So, which are the rarest Silly Bandz packs?
If you'd rather skip the rest of this article and are just looking for a quick answer, well, here's one!
There are two Silly Bandz packs in particular that had extremely limited distribution and were produced in far lower numbers than all others. They are:
- Swim Silly Bandz - this pack was only produced for a short time, perhaps less than a month, before it was taken out of production. See the pack profile for more details.
- Outer Space Silly Bandz - (the pack profile will be up soon on Bandz Wiki) This pack, released in January 2009, is only available from one land-based location: the gift shop at the U.S. Space & Rocker Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Otherwise, it must be purchased online from a seller like Amazon. However, beware! While there are at least a couple of Amazon listings for this pack, we can't confirm any of them as the genuine Silly Bandz pack.
The Longer Answer
"Which are the rarest Silly Bandz?" may not even be the right question to begin with.
Perhaps a better one would be are there even any rare Silly Bandz at all?
The truth of the matter is that, even though particular packs may be hard to find in retail stores, and some bands definitely have a higher "trade value" than others, there isn't a single Silly Bandz-branded pack (or individual shape) that one can't easily find for less than $10 online.
There is also the issue of clone packs. The nature of shaped bands is such that it isn't difficult for any brand to make a close-to-perfect copy of a Silly Bandz pack (or the packs of any other brand whose designs aren't patented). If the faker did a good enough job, only a true expert would be able to tell a forged Outer Space Pack (for example) apart from the genuine article.
As a matter of fact, the common pattern we have seen is that the packs that are perceived to be the rarest are some of the ones most often cloned!
It is for these reasons that it is so important for collectors to keep the bands that they want to save as collectors' items unopened in their original packaging. One funny thing about shaped bands is that the packaging is harder to counterfeit than the bands themselves!
The Only Truly Rare Set of Shaped Bands
However, counterfeiting is (again) a big problem with these Hello Kitty bands. Many opportunists on eBay are attempting to sell the forged set to unwary collectors.
Important: these original Japanese Hello Kitty bands are not to be confused with the Hello Kitty Silly Bandz that Silly Bandz themselves released in September 2010. The new Silly Bandz-branded pack is quite common (and the packaging not nearly as cool!)
Is "Rarity" Important?
Our suggestion to collectors and traders would be not to focus on which bands may be "rarest", but rather, to concentrate on which ones are in the highest demand at any given place and time. Many of the most popular bands aren't rare at all, but can nonetheless be worth many bands each in a trade.
Comments
Leave comments about The Rarest Silly Bandz here.
