Every collectible I watch, which is admittedly short of a handful, is taking advantage of economics. They could teach the multinational corporations a thing or two. I wish it was only 25% jack up. What I'm watching, both in my pipe preferences and other things, is anywhere from 100-400%.
One of the bad things I'm watching happen to estate pipes is the growing number of people getting into the game. I'm assuming fellow pipe smokers thinking they can shave off some costs as they add to their own collection and also make a few bucks for a little discretionary income. It's not a new approach to padding personal collections and costs, but in this case, they're literally jacking up the prices 100% from a couple years ago. And while the argument is made that if these new prices are too high, people just won't buy them, it's not the full story. It only takes 1-3 new sellers with these new exorbitant prices to sell a few pipes, and the entire market adjusts to those said prices. Impatient buyers that don't care about an extra $50-100 bucks make the illusion of that new price become a reality for everyone else. There's every incentive to follow suit for all the sellers then.
I watched a similar thing happen in the late-90s with rental property. Rental homes and apartments were in lockstep with inflation (2-3%). But then people who only owned their own home began to buy up rentals for secondary income. They'd buy a single rental place, but unlike the "slumlords", they couldn't absorb a broken water heater or new furnace//A/C or new roof, so monthly rents started to rise. They got their secondary income, but at the expense of other people in the same income bracket as them. They gained not all that much, while it significantly affected the lifestyle of renters.
