Depends if you're talking about the relative or absolute properties of something. In the truest definition of the word, Exotic does in part mean "something not commonly encountered or seen." Thus uncommon, thus rare. It must meet certain other characteristics such as exceptional beauty or possess other unique properties, however if such beauty or properties are common (I.E. commonly encountered because everyone possesses said object) then in part those other properties cease to be exceptional or unusual. For example a Ferrari is considered an exotic car not only due to its operational and aesthetic properties, but also because they are not commonly encountered elsewhere. A Toyota is not considered exotic because it is both plain and commonly encountered. If the price of a Ferrari were to drop to that of a Toyota and they were to be mass produced, then it would be hard to consider them exotic. On the other hand, if you're talking about the relative properties within an individual player's collection then you could argue an item is exotic if it possesses properties which are unusual or unique compared to other such items. For example the Ophidia Spathe possess a property unique from any other chest armor making it feel exotic. So, in reality both are correct. Bungie kind of created confusion by using a label which has more than one meaning depending on perspective. However, many players tend to lean toward the definition which assigns an item an exotic status because it (the item) is not commonly encountered vs. an assignment of exotic status based solely on the properties of the item vs. others in their collection. Bungie has also reinforced this use of the exotic label by openly stating that they feel Exotics should be more rare and not so easily obtainable as they have been in the past. So it's easy to understand why one would assume an Exotic should be rare.