Maybe I am missing something but why would you buy one of these for that price?
There have always been a percentage of people who who want to own something---a particular thing---because it is expensive. They don't know about it, understand it, or otherwise appreciate it. All they know, and care about, is that people they WANT impress by being able to afford it WILL be impressed.
It's all about broadcasting social status, in other words.
The dynamic is especially ingrained in several Asian cultures. The most outrageous example that's commonly known is a guy who served a full-grown Indian tiger as a banquet meal. Why? Because tigers are a high profile protected species that doesn't take an expert to identify on sight, obtaining one and transporting it would be extremely difficult, as would simply having the ability to find people willing to cook and serve it. Meaning the only conclusion the banquet attendees could arrive at was their host was an impressively powerful person.
Straight grain Dunhill pipes (now marked with stars instead of letters) are one of the tigers of the PipeWorld. Very few are made, and their absurdly high price when they do appear on the market actually makes them MORE attractive, not less.
