What recession?

[edison phonographs]

When is the "recession" going to apply to some of these cylinders?
I've been wanting to get my hands on a Teddy Roosevelt blue amberol for some time but never was able to justify the cost to spend that much on one single cylinder. For Christmas I was given some Ebay gift cards which I thought would be perfect for it. It is alot easier to justify spending that much on one when it's not really your money your spending. However, I used to see them go for $55-$65 dollars for the most part, but these days they are going more for well over $100
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

What gives?

[gregbogantz]

I sympathize. But there will always be the filthy rich who are completely immune to the state of the economy that affects all of us other plebes. It happened during the Great Depression of the 1930s, too. When these moneybags set their sights on something rare in the collectibles market, those articles will command an inordinately high price simply because there are a handful of moneybags vying for them. All it takes is two stupidly rich bidders to jack up the price of something at an auction. The price of merely ordinary or moderately desirable things will fluctuate with the fortunes of us ordinary mortals, but the truly scarce and/or desirable stuff will exhibit prices set by the filthy rich.

And scarcity doesn't necessarily dictate price. Witness the inexplicable continued high prices paid for Thorens TD-124 and Garrard 301 turntables in the golden ear stereo equipment market. Both of these models are technically poorer performers than more modern models, but the golden ears (who seem to have a penchant for growing money on trees) CONTINUOUSLY pay exhorbitantly stupid prices for these models even though they are not rare - there are two or three constantly for sale on eBay and other venues. Either there are only a few golden ears who have decided to wallpaper their listening rooms with Thorens and Garrards and they all have them stacked around like cordwood, or there are many more golden ears out there than is comfortable to contemplate - how can there be so many silly people in the world? Rationality has nothing to do with it.