Imho...
The accepted rule is something is 'worth' what an informed buyer will pay.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Take vintage rolex watches for example...25 years ago a 5513 or 1680 was 'worth' maybe $1500USD. Now the same watches are 'worth' $10,000 or more.
They are the same watches (with 25 more years of wear and tear) for sale during a different time, that's all. Inflation would make today's prices around $3000 not $10,000 or more.
Why are buyers willing to pay so much today?
Maybe they just want to be trendy by wearing an old 'tool watch'.
Most of today's vintage rlx buyers are too young to remember when the watches they are paying $10k+ for sold for $400 new.
Every generation has its legions of buyers who will pay the price to go back in time.
My generation buys 1960s/70s American musclecars for 10x to 50x what they sold for new. They remember when the cars were new in showrooms but they did not have the money to buy one.
Why do they pay so much for an old car today?
Probably because they are Nostalgic.
I was a car freak in the 1960s and 1970s but I would not give $100 for an old car today if I had to drive it everyday and keep it up.
Why?
Because I remember the $400 '55, '56, '57 Chevrolets I had back then with maybe 80,000 actual miles on the clock. The door hinges sagged and you had to pick up on the door and stuff it in the door frame, the suspension was all worn out, the differential gears whined like a wild Panther in heat, the brakes would not stop the car in half a mile, they went around curves like a three legged dog, the window regulators were all shot so the windows were half way down in the winter, the vacuum windshield wipers stopped when you accelerated, the engines were on their second or third set of rings and bearings, the valves were loose in the guides and the floppy rocker arms mushroomed the valve spring tips, the cam lobes usually had flat spots, the ignition points always needed setting, and the cars rattled like a truck full of hub caps.
I guess I am a little bit nostalgic...enough to have a 55xx Frankenstein.
Are you nostalgic?