Posted By:
runscottThere are a lot of people in this hobby with lots and lots of discretionary income - some of them will spend whatever it takes to get an item they want - absolutely no limits; others will spend 2-3X market value, and consider it a luxury tax, or otherwise rationalize why they had to spend more than perceived market value to get an item they absolutely had to have. We know a few collectors on this board who fit into these categories, and a few gouging dealers who absolutely love it! Re-selling such purchases during hard times can be an eye-opener.
Sometimes you have longer-lasting price increases that eventually also drop off, but that usually takes more than 1-2 collectors on a spending spree. The e-card frenzies a year ago, and the PSA-graded t206 frenzies come to mind. Enough people to drive up the prices temporarily, but not enough for them to stay there.
Also, you can't decide that when two high-rollers get in a battle over something that the resulting massive price increase is the new market value. Once they each have their copy of the item, the price might drop a lot (item becomes available cheaper). Hal said something about bidding up an item to protect the "value" of his own personal example, but I don't know if that worked for him or not. If a third example popped up and he tried this, he might just find himself with two copies...or three...or four.