Forgive me for seeming like a killjoy. It's not my intention. I am really surprised at the value that camera has held. It is a great tool. Congratulations on the new tool, and I, of course, would have no problems with using it myself! Also, If you consider the value of the guitar I traded for my Sinar, I have nearly $3,000 into the system, not $1,500. I did not think to count it because I inherited the guitar.
Well, I guess I can put it this way then. I wonder how much it would cost me to have a camera commissioned with the same specs? If Sinar or Toyo took the request, maybe they'd be kind enough to do it for under $50K? Could they do it without the patent? Maybe S.K.Grimes could work one up for me?
I know I'm being silly here (and I mean it in jest, not to be offensive), but literally that's the situation I was in. I was resigned to having to use a mono-rail, but putting it away when moderate weather came along in the field, or when I couldn't pack it with my other gear for multi-day hikes through mountain passes and coast-line.
Believe me, looking at my choice of food items now for the next couple of months, and the stuff I'm going to have to put on eBay (anyone in need of a great Horseman LE 450?) I hear where you're coming on the price. But just as the price, as you said, may have been justified before digital deflated film-based products, my particular needs now justify the benefit in a cost benefit analysis to bid on the prices that are going for a camera of which a little more than 100 were made, and of which most are in collections and not available for sale (this last part is more the answer to your question about why does it cost so much). I'm quite sure that the opportunity would not have come along again, or it would have been much more expensive. I think the key to where your thinking I'm crazy (a reasonable assumption), is that you feel I have plenty of alternative options.
I could have chosen not to get the camera, but then I'd be complaining to myself for the next x-number of years in Iceland during the rainy, windy summer for not having the specs I've been looking for, and upset that I didn't take the images I had planned to take for my long-term project. There are also particular non-analog advantages of this camera that I'm not detailing (for obvious reason) that are a definite deal-breaker with field-cameras.
I think you're quite correct that most would benefit in making a different purchase, but the stars aligned on this purchasing decision for me (and asked to pay up).
Okay, gotta go and put the Ramen Noodles on the stove