I do not understand the element of "woo" that some people attach to objects used by other individuals. I'm talking about this auction: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27617/lot/1094/a-macintosh-used-by-steve-job... A Macintosh SE estimated to go for between $200,000 and $300,000, just because Steve Jobs touched it? This is my opinion, and I don't need to be convinced otherwise. If your opinion differs, I would be interested in any reasoning.
It might also be like artwork. It can be considered a wealth store in a different currency. Also, my understanding is the fine art world is a huge tax avoidance scheme. https://thestandrewseconomist.com/2020/11/27/the-art-of-tax-evasion/ But it's not just vintage computers. All kinds of collecatable markets have gone up a bunch because of the amount of money sloshing around. The wagies get crushed by inflation and aren't benefitting but others such as the unproductive FIRE sector are rolling it in and need places to stuff it. Collectable cars have gone wild (check Bring a Trailer.) The pinball machine market is kinda nutty, good luck finding something to fix up. The arcade scene is hot but always less than pinball as it is inferior. Game consoles and systems are hot. I don't know about comic books or sports cards or those markets but I think the game card markets like Magic: The Gathering are warm. But it all might slow soon. No one knows. When bitcoin rained tons of money down on some of those kids they were spending easy and large on stuff. There is also some talk that a bunch of the really high dollar video game sales were shill buyers / buyback schemes to juice the market. The video game ratings people are accused of that, and supposedly were involved in doing the same thing with collectable coins years ago. They made the market mania to drive people to pay to get them rated is how the story goes I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.) Now they did the same thing with video games, driving a few fake highly public collectable game sales to drive buzz. Someone told me there is a 1 year backlog on getting your video game rated unless you pay for expedited service. What a good hustle. - Ethan