Hey, this is what I'm doing now:

=IF(ISNUMBER(J13),(SUMPRODUCT(--($A$13:$A$2650=$A13),--(J13<J$13:J$2650))+1),1000000)

If the cell contains an error or text, I assign it a high number (1000000)
so it is ranked at the very bottom of the screen.

do you like this version?

I'm using it in conjunction with this to assign % rank, where the formula
above is in column AM.
=IF(AM13/COUNTIF($A$13:$A$2500,A13)1,1,AM13/COUNTIF($A$13:$A$2500,A13))

See a follow up question in a separate post if you are interested -- trying
to figure out how to easily use autofilter to show only the top 10%, 20%
etc...

thanks again for your comments/help!