I'm really not picking on TinTin owners but I've seen this before on other forums that deal with other topics. Case in point - high-end "Tour" putters in the golf world, specifically the Scotty Cameron brand. Cameron's Tour putters (separate from his retail offerings sold by Titleist) have many of the hallmarks of the limited edition watch game: limited in supply and only available through a small number of hand-picked distributors; high prices - $4k and up; a certificate of authenticity system and registry set up through Cameron's Custom Shop, for a fee of course; a rabid community of collectors (where heretics and apostates are excommunicated); a massive focus on the value of one's collection and hyping up asking prices, while obscuring actual sale prices among collectors; collectors in the inner circle have greater access to special items, and their items are given preferential treatment in the COA process (i.e. higher grades, authentication of items with questionable provenance, outright revision of history by Cameron, etc).
The echo chamber aspect is eerily similar, which is amusing in these TinTin threads. Typically a small group of owners/collectors, talking mainly to each other, amazed at how quickly their items are escalating in value, outlandish predictions of future price increases, and constantly referring to the "hype" that they have created. In my experience, it's generally impossible to predict which items will rise sharply in the future. Wishful thinking won't make it happen. The biggest difference I see in this forum is the greater transparency around sale prices, which I appreciate as a newer member.
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