Moderately cohesive ramblings ahead; one thing I've noticed across multiple hobbies/interests (tech, gaming, cycling, etc) would be the impact of 2020/the pandemic across used markets. The phenomenon of supply issues combined with flippers/scalpers who have the buy low sell high methodology created a perfect storm of people happily willing to pay over the odds for x product, and then three or four years down the line they want to recoup the money spent at the time. Pair that up with the retro/vintage market in general which don't get me wrong isn't a new thing, but in the last few years it's taken off solely for inane profits. Both of these together has lead to people with dollar signs for eyeballs offering up any old tat for absurd amounts because they've seen similar items sell for thousands - TCGs are another good example of this; obviously card grading has been around since afaik early 90s? but mostly reserved for enthusiasts of said games (bar a few outliers). Average joe then sees a top quality graded card in mint condition go for a significant amount, thinks his childhood collection of played battered cards are worth something and they end up on the bay at stupid costs, or on the other side of that people will see cards selling for high values and start clearing out the shelves of them at stores/online/etc in the hopes one will be a golden ticket.