Depression glass colors are often the first thing collectors notice. A pale pink plate catches the light differently from a green tumbler. Amber can give an ordinary serving dish a warm, autumnal look, while cobalt blue or ruby red can stop someone in their tracks from across an antique shop.
Color is also one of the first things people use when trying to judge rarity. That is where collecting gets more complicated. A striking color is not automatically scarce, and a familiar color is not necessarily common in every pattern or piece. With Depression glass, scarcity usually comes from a combination of color, pattern, form, production history, survival, and condition rather than color alone.
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