A limited print run, a single harvest, or an allocation a maker will not repeat, that is genuine scarcity. A large-batch release that a distributor simply did not reorder in bulk is not the same thing, even if it is currently hard to find on a shelf. The difference matters because one of these will come back, eventually, in some form. The other will not, by design.
Curating around real scarcity means saying no to a lot of product that would be easy to stock and easy to sell. A boutique blender’s one-time run sitting next to a decades-old brand’s anniversary box only makes sense on the same shelf if both were held to that same bar, not because either one is simply unavailable elsewhere at the moment.
This is also why a collection built this way stays smaller than a warehouse buyer’s. Smaller is not the goal. It is what is left after actually applying the standard.