History Main / NotRareOverThere

* Gold was so common on pre-''ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}}'' [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Krypton]] that it was considered a cheap metal. When Jor-El first tried building a spaceship[[note]]''(Not'' the little one that would eventually carry baby Kal-El)[[/note]], he was mocked for using something as heavy as gold; but the ship used anti-gravity, so the weight didn't matter. He had made it out of gold as a cost-saving measure.
* In one ''ComicBook/{{Archie|Comics}}'' comic, Jughead loses his hat and is none too concerned, telling Archie not to worry about it and going home. Archie, believing it to be an irreplaceable staple of Jughead's personality, goes to great lengths to retrieve it. When he returns it to Jughead at home, Jughead thanks him, but shows him that he has a cupboard full of them since they tend to get lost or damaged over the years.

* Painite is seen as this in ''Fanfic/IfWishesWerePonies'', both the Wizarding World and Equestria place high value in Painite due to it being one of the best methods of enchanting Armor with as a PowerCrystal. The Goblins of Gringotts were willing to haggle Thousands of Galleons for a small fist-sized bag of Painite crystals in order to prevent it from being sold to a Muggle Jeweler; which made the sellers the 10th-largest Beneficiaries to Gringotts. Said bag of Painite was gathered by Harry Potter and the Cutie Mark Crusaders one evening right outside of Sweet Apple Acres, even Rarity [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how easy Painite is to come by in Equestria.
-->'''Rarity:''' I usually ignore them when I find them as my customers don't like the way those gems interfere with their spell-casting if there are any sewn into their clothes.
* ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheNatural20'': Salt, in Milo's home world, is a trade good with a fixed and unchanging price of five gold pieces per pound. In the Potterverse, salt is plentiful and cheap — but it doesn't matter how much Milo ''pays'' for it; when he's using it to craft magic items, it's worth five gold pieces per pound.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12425636/2/Dragon-Knight Dragon Knight]]'', Xander and his family bring a chest full of gold and gems from Rivellon when he returns to Sunnydale. He estimates that the amount they brought would buy a large house back in Rivellon but on Earth would be enough to buy half of Sunnydale.

* ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'': Daenarys tries to buy off a mercenary company and offers a casket of wine as a goodwill gift. The mercenary captain complains that this is not enough and demands a whole wagon of caskets instead, to which Daenarys obliges (she's planning to attack them while they're drunk). The captain wasn't aware that Daenarys *did* just loot an entire city famous for (among other things) its wine.
* ''Literature/MythAdventures'': Aahz tells Skeeve that things that are rare in one dimension are commonplace in another, and so a skilled enough magician could make a small fortune selling cheap trinkets at marked up prices. The biggest offenders are the Deveels, who've become a ProudMerchantRace thanks to this trope.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** The Counterweight Continent has a rather large concentration of gold compared to the Ankh-Morpork area. From a Counterweight perspective, Twoflower's Luggage full of treasure is an appropriate amount to cover his traveling expenses. From Rincewind's perspective it would probably buy a kingdom.
** And when Rincewind first encountered Twoflower in [[WretchedHive The Broken Drum]] and saw his Luggage made of sapient pearwood, he estimated it was worth more than the drinks, the bar and all its inhabitants combined. In ''Literature/InterestingTimes'' we learn that, while living, walking luggages aren't common, many Counterweight nobles own one. ''The'' Luggage is still a unique example, being much more proactive and aggressive than most.

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** On Beta Colony, wood is very rare, so Cordelia is shocked when its so common on Barrayar
** While in reverse, Aral tells a story about how one of his Barrayarn ancestors invested in gems (rare on Barrayar) but ended up losing the family fortune because they were much more common in the rest of the nexus (due to synthetics).
* In the Cordwainer Smith story ''On the Gem Planet'', gems are ridiculously common and essentially worthless on Pontoppidan (the eponymous planet), but ''dirt'' is rare and precious.
* In ''Triplanetary'', the first part of the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series, the Nevians come up with a way to transmute matter into (tremendous amounts of) energy, but the problem is that it needs iron, which is incredibly rare on their world. They power an interstellar spacecraft with the few pounds of it they can manage to scrape together to go out looking for more, which they find ... in the form of a spaceship from Earth. The Nevians and "Tellurians" get off to a rather rocky start because of this, but eventually become friends.
* In ''Literature/TheBadPlace'', one of the main characters teleports to another planet in his sleep and comes back with pockets full of red diamonds, enough to be worth a considerable fortune here on Earth.
* In Sackett's Land by Louis L'Amour, Rufisco objects to selling cheap beads to the Indians in exchange for valuable furs. Barnabas Sackett explains to Rufisco:
--> Value is a matter of scarcity and need. The beads we have cost little in England because we have many, but here those beads are rare. Furs are cheap to them for the same reasons. We want their furs, they want our beads. So we strike a bargain.
* In ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries The Skylark of Space]]'', the only known chemical that can properly treat the formation of the setting's superweapons is sodium chloride, that is, common table salt, which happens to be so rare on the planet which builds the weapons that there is more of it in a single salt shaker than has been mined over the entire history of said planet. Since Seaton is from Earth and gives some salt to the planet's natives who expressed curiosity, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero he ends up escalating a war]].
* ''Literature/InAnAbsentDream'': The world of the [[BazaarOfTheBizarre Goblin Market]] is rich in wonders but low on writing implements, so Lundy is able to strike an excellent bargain for her spare pencil when she's [[TrappedInAnotherWorld stranded there]]. She makes sure to bring a box on her next trip.

* In a ChristmasEpisode of ''Series/MurphyBrown'', Murphy spends the entire episode desperately searching for that year's CoolToy for her son, only to find that it is sold out everywhere. At the end of the episode, Eldon sends her one from Europe where the fad has apparently passed and the toys are common and cheap.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Alias}}'', Agent Grace bargains for some intelligence from a German counterpart by promising a shipment of jerky: half beef, half venison. The agents are bemused by the apparent rarity of jerky in Germany, considering its fame for other processed meats like sausage.
* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', [[GreenRocks naquadah]] is initially treated as {{unobtainium}}, as it can't be found anywhere in the Solar System. In fact, when they discover that an asteroid heading for Earth is made up of the stuff, this is seen as proof that it was towed there by the Goa'uld from another system. Then, as the series goes on, it turns out to be, while not as common as dirt, common enough in the galaxy that the Tau'ri can eventually get a steady supply. Weapons-grade naquadah is quite a bit rarer, though, and naquadria is damn difficult to find.
* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''. Spike Spiegel makes an offhand comment that diamonds are hard to move on the black market, but doesn't say why. A later episode has a boss of TheSyndicate eager to forge an alliance with a rival crime cartel on UsefulNotes/{{Neptune}}, saying it rains diamonds over there. If so the Syndicate couldn't deal in diamonds as their rivals on Neptune could flood the market at any time, sending the price of diamonds plummeting, hence their eagerness to establish a monopoly and control the price.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork 2'', one NPC asks to be paid in "Guard * chips". Talk to another NPC, and she'll give you 30 of them.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', Vault City has an entire apartment full of water chips, the object that half the first game is spent trying to obtain.[[note]]Even worse, they were ''intended'' for Vault 13 - the vault in the original game that needs it - but were sent to Vault 8 (now Vault City) due to a shipping error[[/note]]

* Used as part of a rant by [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Ash]] in ''Webcomic/VGCats'' #252. He has plenty of Pokemon because he's been catching them, or to be more precise: [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=258 Bitch be tripping balls!]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', Al and Iago go on a quest for the legendary Orb of Macana, the only thing that could cure a sick Genie. They have to overcome three arduous trials, and after completing each one, the guardian of the Orb goes to a chamber and retrieves it... from among thousands of identical orbs. The guardian complains that at this rate he'll never be able to get rid of them all.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' universe, iron is actually [[ArtisticLicensePhysics rare outside of the Earth]].

* This trope and some of its resultant issues are thought to be why iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice in ancient times. Making bronze requires both copper and tin but there are few places in the world where both metals (or their ores) are found in close proximity and if you lose access to access to the trade networks you need to get one or the other (as has been speculated to occur in the Eastern Mediterranean's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Bronze_Age_collapse Bronze Age Collapse]]) you have to start looking for alternatives and iron has the advantage of only requiring one source of ore, even if smelting it is more difficult.

* The third quarter of ''VideoGame/{{Might and Magic}} VI'' the protagonists spend painstakingly collecting Memory Crystals and then a Control Cube to gain access to a facility located under a major city. For that, they have to travel to the farthest reaches of the game continent and prawl huge and complex dungeons filled with tough monsters of all flavors. And the Crystals they manage to obtain even turn out of be somewhat damaged which has repercussions. Once in the facility -- lo and behold, in one of the storerooms, there is a container chock-full of Memory Crystals and another one full of Control Cubes.

* Your town in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' typically has one kind of fruit in abundance. Getting others is a real pain because you need to either visit another town, or [[LuckBasedMission luck out]] and get one from a villager. Though in the other villages they could have tons of of stuff that you want.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', after returning to a [[TheMafia mafia]] Don who was part of a previous quest to get tickets for a trip on the [[CoolTrain Excess Express]] you need to find a PlotCoupon, you find him deathly ill. Turns out he's stick from worry over his daughter and son-in-law (who he exiled previously), so his goons offer you the tickets if you can get them to return. Upon recovering, he's furious when he learn they promised you a reward without his permission...until Mario says what it was, and he bursts into laughter before asking how many you want.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games are divided into complementary versions. The biggest differences between versions are what kind of Pokémon are available. For example, one species might be common in one version but rare in the other, or another can only be found in one version of the game. This encourages trading.
** And in between generations, there are Pokemon that are rare or even unique in one game or region, but more common in another. For example, Eevee was only obtainable as a gift in Generation I, but can be found in the wild in certain areas starting in Generation IV.

* In the Sword Coast Stratagems GameMod for ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', you need to backtrack to town to buy a length of rope to proceed in a certain late-game dungeon. The shopkeeper has a good laugh over the fact that you, at that point an epic-level badass whose equipment is worth more than the entire town, need something as common as that. He gives it to you for free, saying that he will be "dining on this story for weeks".
* In ''VideoGame/FarCry3'', set in a fictional South Pacific island chain, the rare version of the tapir players need to hunt to craft the largest explosives pouch is a white-bellied variant, which like all other rare Path of the Hunter targets is the only one of its kind in the game. Come ''VideoGame/FarCry4'', set in a small country bordering the Himalayas, white-bellied Malayan tapirs are the norm.

* Played with in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' regarding "Gold Tips Imperial" tea. According to Yaoyorozu's mother, this type of tea is rather hard or impossible to find. However, there's a rather obscure cafe a few minutes from the school grounds that serves this exact type.

* In the ''Literature/MythAdventures'' books, Aahz tells Skeeve that things that are rare in one dimension are commonplace in another, and so a skilled enough magician could make a small fortune selling cheap trinkets at marked up prices. The biggest offenders are the Deveels, who've become {{Proud Merchant Race Guy}}s thanks to this trope.

So you need something. Maybe you need your equipment repaired, maybe life will become so much easier if you have a certain piece of equipment, maybe you need the next item in a ChainOfDeals or perhaps you're outright looking for the next PlotCoupon. After much effort you track down the ''only'' source of this rare good or service (or perhaps try and fail to procure it from other sources) ready for yet another quest or to pay through the nose in exchange...and they're astounded you're so desperate to get your hands on something so easy to get hold of. Occasionally the trope is downplayed, with the item in question being hard to obtain, but granting a high yield (for example a rare ore which you can dig up tonnes of after finding your way to an isolated mine) or something minor compared with the rest of what you get (for example, requiring just a single coin made of a particular alloy or a special magic item in a massive hoard) making just one a trivial reward.

-->'''Rarity:''' I usually ignore them when I find them as my customers don’t like the way those gems interfere with their spell-casting if there are any sewn into their clothes.

* In ''[[Literature/SkylarkSeries The Skylark of Space]]'', the only known chemical that can properly treat the formation of the setting’s superweapons is sodium chloride, that is, common table salt, which happens to be so rare on the planet which builds the weapons that there is more of it in a single salt shaker than has been mined over the entire history of said planet. Since Seaton is from Earth and gives some salt to the planet’s natives who expressed curiosity, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero he ends up escalating a war]].

* ''WesternAnimation/PorkyInWackyland'' is all about WesternAnimation/PorkyPig trying to capture the last of the Do-Do birds. After he does, the Do-Do replies "Yes, I'm really the last of the Do-Dos. Ain't I, fellas?" Suddenly, dozens of Do-Dos appear out of nowhere to answer him.
* In one of the Three Bears ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' ("The Bee-deviled Bruin"), Papa Bear nearly gets himself killed trying to get honey from a hive in a tree outside his home. Eventually, he gives up and asks for a bottle of ketchup. Mama Bear goes to get it... from a cupboard filled to the brim with jars of honey. She ''did'' try to tell him before, but he told her to be quiet.

* Played with in ''Manga/OnePiece''. The Straw Hat Pirates decide to [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything act like pirates for once]] and make off with a bunch of gold from the Skypieans... but it turns out that [[WorthlessYellowRocks gold is extremely common there]] and they'd be happy to just give it away to the people who had just saved their lives.

* Toys/{{Amiibo}} vary in rarity across regions, with ones that are difficult to find in one country filling up shelves in other locations. Australia in particular has a reputation for inverting the rarity charts compared to other regions, and it sometimes gets called [[FanNickname "amiibo heaven"]] as a result.

* Lampreys became this, to much international amusement, some years ago. Once a highly prized eating fish, part of the City of Birmingham's obligations to the Crown is to provide the Royal family with one lamprey pie for Christmas. However, overfishing and habitat destruction has left the lamprey almost extinct in the UK, requiring the city to go to Canada, hat in hand, to find the lampreys they needed. Meanwhile, in the Great Lakes, lampreys are highly prolific, as well as an extremely destructive invasive species. The Canadian reaction was essentially "How many tons do you want and what do we have to pay you to take them?"

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' [=DVDs=] in Region 1 were sold according to popularity--Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and some Jon Pertwee and even William Hartnell stories are common in R1, whereas Sylvester [=McCoy=] and Patrick Troughton stories command prices on the resale market ''in hundreds of dollars'' owing to their small print runs. Fortunately, all of the Doctors' stories are very, very common in Region 2, to the point where one could buy a decent region-free player, import five or six from the UK, and even with shipping, all of that would be significantly less than the selling price of the R1 edition of "The War Games"! [[/folder]]

** ''Literature/TheWitchesOfKarres'': There's a brief mention in the first book of a particularly rare liquor made from the fermented juices three particular fruits, each of which will grow on only one world of the Empire and must be imported specially... unless you're on friendly terms with the people of [[HiddenElfVillage Karres]], who have figured out how to cultivate all three on their homeworld. One of the trade goods they reward Pausert with for helping three Karresian children extract themselves from a bad situation is several hundred cases of that liquor, which (after getting into and then out of trouble a couple of times) he subsequently sells for a positively staggering amount of money.

* Gold was so common on pre-ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}} [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Krypton]] that it was considered a cheap metal. When Jor-El first tried building a spaceship[[note]]''(Not'' the little one that would eventually carry baby [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El)]][[/note]], he was mocked for using something as heavy as gold; but the ship used anti-gravity, so the weight didn't matter. He had made it out of gold as a cost-saving measure.

* Gold was so common on pre-ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}} [[{{Superman}} Krypton]] that it was considered a cheap metal. When Jor-El first tried building a spaceship[[note]]''(Not'' the little one that would eventually carry baby [[{{Superman}} Kal-El)]][[/note]], he was mocked for using something as heavy as gold; but the ship used anti-gravity, so the weight didn't matter. He had made it out of gold as a cost-saving measure.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' DVDs in Region 1 were sold according to popularity--Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and some Jon Pertwee and even William Hartnell stories are common in R1, whereas Sylvester [=McCoy=] and Patrick Troughton stories command prices on the resale market ''in hundreds of dollars'' owing to their small print runs. Fortunately, all of the Doctors' stories are very, very common in Region 2, to the point where one could buy a decent region-free player, import five or six from the UK, and even with shipping, all of that would be significantly less than the selling price of the R1 edition of "The War Games"! [[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'': Daenarys tries to buy off a mercenary company and offers a casket of wine as a goodwill gift. The mercenary captain complains that this is not enough and demands a whole wagon of caskets instead, to which Daenarys obliges. The captain wasn't aware that Daenarys *did* just loot an entire city famous for (among other things) its wine.

** The Counterweight Continent has a rather large concentration of gold compared to the Ankh-Morpork area. From a Counterweight perspective, Twoflower's Luggage filled of treasure is an appropriate amount to cover his traveling expenses. From Rincewind's perspective it would probably buy a kingdom.
** And when Rincewind first encountered Twoflower in [[WretchedHive The Broken Drum]] and saw his Luggage made of sapient pearwood, he estimated it was worth more than the drinks, the bar and all its inhabitants combined. In ''Literature/InterestingTimes'' we learn that, while they're not common, many Counterweight nobles own one. The luggage is still a unique example, being much more proactive and aggressive.

* Salt was once rare in Europe. There are specific areas with abundant salt deposits, however, and when towns appeared in these areas, these towns would soon become important destinations for merchants with "salt roads" established between them and major metropolitan centers. Towns often displayed in their names that they had salt: Old English's word for salt was "wich", for instance; all towns and cities that end in "-wich," like Sandwich and Norwich, were once sources of salt.

* [[Creator/GawkerMedia Jalopnik]]'s RunningGag about diesel [[DrivingStick manual]] wagons. Rare new (only VW offers one at this writing) in America and virtually impossible to find used, but practically the default medium-to-large car in Europe.