Car Boot Bargains

[Valvebloke]

I wonder what they want them for?

Usually to put in hi-fi amps or guitar amps.

It's been very well known for a very long time that people's appreciation of the sound of an audio system can be very strongly influenced by their beliefs about that system. If they believe that it is broken then it will sound broken to them, even if it measures fine. Likewise if they believe that it is perfect then it will sound perfect even if the audio analyser says it isn't.

Enough people believe that certain valves sound better than others (in some senses at least this can be objectively true) that the demand for them exceeds the supply. In this case the price rises until the demand is throttled back (fundamental law of economics). That's the market price, even if the 'market' is a very few wealthy enthusaists.

The example I quoted, incidentally, wasn't one of those where the seller put a silly price on an item. That really was the selling price, according to eBay (which means, at the minimum, that the seller paid them the selling fee on that price).

VB