It's subsided a bit. For giggles, I started tracking prices when the madness began and people were shelling out $150 for a tin for just about anything McClelland. Now it's much more selective. Certain blends, like Tudor Castle, Blackwoods Flake, the older Christmas Cheers, and several others, are still getting respectable prices, though much reduced from the high point. Most of the Frogs, the Numbers, and the 40th, are settling in at around $25 to $40 for 50 grams, and $50 to $65 for 100 grams. And there's a lot of variation in the final bid price. The same blend may sell for $30 at one auction, $45 at another, and $23 at still another, on the same day. A lot of really highly priced McClellands posted by the more rapacious sellers are now going unsold. As long as buyers are willing to pay these prices, these will be the prices.
So much for Milton Friedman and the neo classical school of economics. Especially with something like the Christmas Cheers, there's little rational about it. A 2004 Christmas Cheer was just as extinct a blend before McClelland closed it's doors as after, but the price is suddenly up about 50%.
The number of listings has dropped from a high of over 400 a day to the upper 200's.
We'll see where it is in another few months, but, barring another financial meltdown, I don't expect it to move much lower.
Then see where it is in 5 years after a lot of it has been smoked up.
