The whole thing is a sticky subject...
While I 100% agree with the free market, and in my heart and mind know that one is free to ask whatever price they want for any item they choose to sell, but it also doesn't mean I can't think they are a money grubbing douchebag while doing it...
But where the rubber really meets the road, and things kind of go around the bend for me is when certain high end dealers, who 100% KNOW what they are doing and looking at sell HUMPED pieces with crazy high non-humped prices...
Dealers (who I won't mention) have had items called out here, and when messaged about it basically say "thanks for the info" and don't do anything to rectify the situation...now we are getting into the area of fraud...unfortunately, as also pointed out by learned members (and members of the bar here) fraud is so difficult to prove, not much can be done except calling them out. Like a Supreme Court Justice once said, I may not be able to define pornography, but I know it when I see it. And to add, like fruit from the poisonous tree, to me, it calls for a huge caveat emptor and calls everything they sell into question, and worthy of extra scrutiny of contemplating buying...
As far as the pricing goes, as has been discussed, asking crazy prices, and having someone actually pay them does in the long run hurt the collecting community. Now some Joe Bubba Tard surfing the internet sees some 98k (he doesn't know the difference) sold for $12,000, and the lightbulb goes off, and he grabs granpappies war rifle from the closet, hauls it out in all its chopped to a Remchester look a like glory, slings it over his shoulder and drags it to the show asking $6000 for it, and won't consider a penny less, and accuses you of being a crook for telling him its worth $400...
I just recently made the hard decision to part with one of mine, and put it on here...pricing it was sort of difficult. I think its a solid rifle, possibly a rescued sporter, as all the metal (save bands) matched, but stock is correct, and numbered in pencil in the channel. Handguard does not match, and bands are un-numbered (incorrect for a dot 43, and not ground and refinished, but legit un-numbered stamped bands).
I wanted to be fair on pricing, but, damn, as also pointed out here, RC's have been selling at the $700-$850 price point, and this is way heads and shoulders above an RC, IMHO...I started it at $1150, dropped to $1075, and finally $975....a newer guy here pulled the trigger...and I am very happy its going to a newer guy, starting out. I think its a solid, good looking example, and I hope he will be very happy with it.
Again, with the pricing...I am not a gun seller...especially 98k's, I don't like selling them, and if I decide to its one of those things I am not so much willing to give away cheap, if that were the case, I'd just as soon hang on to it. Other guns I accumulate, and may like, but are not part of the core collection, I routinely will let go cheap when I need to.
As far as guys paying these exorbitant prices...well, again, mixed feelings...on one hand, good on ya, wish I were in that position. On the other hand, I have talked to people who know guys like these, who have been taken into their inner sanctums to see the collections....these guys open drawers and display cases to show them incredibly nice, incredibly rare examples of whatever...and don't know shite about them, just see them as an investment. That sort of pisses me off, because I have been collecting since I was 10 years old, and do it because I absolutely love what I collect, and always strive to learn everything I can about what I collect. Its a labor of love, and these guys who have more money than brains just buy super nice stuff for whatever it costs, and don't give two shits about what it is...just that it might make them money someday.
And one more thing I will say before ending this incredibly long ramble...and I discussed this with Mike one time...as fellow collectors, think about this. If you had all the money in the world, where prices were meaningless, you could go to someplace like Collectors Firearms, or Pre-98, and buy everything up without blinking an eye....would collecting be as fun? Would it be meaningful?
While its nice to dream about being able to do that, I have to say, I don't think it would be as fun...I think a lot of us see this as the fun is in the hunt, if there was no hunt, would it be fun?
I just picked up a Magazine Lee Metford a few weeks ago...been dreaming about finding one for a long time (one where I didn't have to lay out $2,500 to snag it, because, unfortunately for me $2500 is a shitload of money...
)...and lo and behold, I stumbled on one (I need to get some good pics, I will post it up here at some point)...My heart skipped a beat, and I was all excited and giddy...if all I had to do was find one online, and push a button, I doubt it would have been as fun...
Anyway, I think some of this pricing is insane, and no, I don't really like it...but it is (for now) a capitalist free market system....