The 'ridiculous' prices are NOT ridiculous if your either the seller, or
the high bidder, who I suspect, does not have a gun to his head. I dare
say even the near-high bidders don't think some of the prices are
ridiculous. There is only one seller, one high bidder, and one item of
this kind being AUCTIONED. I think it's nuts for me to buy somthing IN
THAT CONDITION for that amount. But, it wasn't offered up for sale. It
was AUCTIONED. And, more importantly, I don't have a need or desire for
it. The rest of us who watched never would have bought OR bid these
prices because this item is not on our 'seek list'.
These bidders wanted this one item. They can't trot down to the mall to
buy it. The market value does not even factor in to this because there
only ONE item and, really, no real market for this anyway. I think it
would make things more clear if we thought of these parts as 'out of
production', or 'rare', or 'antiques', rather than the same old bike
parts we all used to have lots of before we cleaned our closets out fo
the last time in the '70s. Keeping costs reasonable (whatever that means)
would help many people with varying means and interests to have access to
all this cool stuff. It's a noble goal, but unreasonble as long as
commerce and art continue to overlap. And many see this collecting
'thing' as an art form. Collecting, as an act, nearly defies logic and
explanation. The high bidders who drive up the sale price on a
one-of-a-kind item are are playing on a different field than most of us
walk on during our routine lives.
e-RICHIE