Retrodude wrote:Ack wrote: If a large group of sellers think an item is worth something, then it is.
No. It really isn't. If every seller suddenly decided that SMB/Duck Hunt was the most valuable cart ever and started charging $500 for it, that wouldn't mean it actually was worth that. Unfortunately, in that scenario, if someone pointed out how stupid that was, all they would hear is "free market, supply and demand, free market, supply and demand" as if those words actually meant something.
Actually, if that cart is going for $500, then that is the percieved value by the seller, and if someone buys it, then that is the perceived value by the buyer. Simple as that.
Also, your hypothetical argument against what you perceive to be free market principles seems to deny any sort of idea about value being set by individuals, when in fact value can only be set by individuals or groups thereof. Government regulating value of an item or service? Still being set by an individual or a group of individuals, and that value is just as arbitrarily set. If the federal government of a nation declared all copies of Mario/Duck Hunt to be worth $500 and backed that by legislation, would that be the value?
