Lover price

The connoisseur price , outdated also affection price , is the selling price to be achieved on the market that exceeds the price that can be determined on the basis of a purely economic benefit analysis because certain buyers attach an emotional value , connoisseur value or collector's value to the object of the business . These buyers are mostly collectors , restorers or big fans of these objects.

In the case of the collector's price, there is an actual market price, unlike in the case of usury , in which the price is inflated by exploiting a contractual partner's weak situation.

Historical reception

In 1777 the enlightener Johann Bernhard Basedow described a lover's award as "the price that is based on a very special love of the matter (pretium affectionis)". "When many start to set a price for a lover" [on "certain things"] ": things get more expensive".

The philosopher Immanuel Kant observed in 1797: “Whatever relates to general human inclinations and needs has a market price; that which even without a need presupposes a certain taste, d. i. a pleasure in the mere futile play of our emotional powers is, according to it, an affection price; but that which constitutes the condition under which alone something can be an end in itself has not merely a relative value; i. a price, but an intrinsic value, d. i. Would."

In 1888 A. Patuschka reported in his economic supplements to the curriculum of the elementary school of a rich Trieste merchant who "intended to please his wife for Christmas with a monkey as a present." To this end, he commissioned an agent to make this possible "under all circumstances" do. He paid a “so-called lover's price” because the agent received the desired “under all circumstances, i. H. bought at everyone, even at high prices . ”Patuschka counted among the six cases that caused monopoly prices , in addition to the collector's price, also the [hunger] emergency prices, prices for rare agricultural products, prices for art and fashion items and prices for items that were produced Demand “very large capital”.

According to Bruno Volger's Goldnen Book of the Merchant from 1903, national economies know different types of price; the market price , the enthusiast price , the “natural price” and the “artificial price”. “Goods that are individually sought after by their consumers do not achieve a market price, but rather the collector's price is much closer to them. This price does not treat its goods according to the principles of the market price, but according to an appropriate value, which arises when considering several individual points, such as rarity, fashion, demand, the purely ideal estimate of the individual. These details together give the estimated level of preference that exists for a good. The pure creation and cost value of the good takes a back seat to the current, ideal value. The lover price is very fluctuating in nature, if only because it is largely influenced by external circumstances ”.

In the Annals of the German Reich for Legislation, Administration and Economics in 1921 it was stated that “individual appreciation [...] plays a major role in determining prices. Anyone who believes they cannot do without an item [...] and who can meet the monetary consideration without difficulty can and will help increase prices through their individual wishes. And since there are many such enthusiasts on a regular basis, this enthusiast price becomes a general price. The pricing is also influenced by the desirability of the seller. "

In 1924, the economist Robert Wilbrandt described the collector's price as the opposite of the emergency price , in which the seller “ accepts every offer” due to a lack of interested parties and thus “has the need to strike at any price”. The buyer, “who has any special request, has to invest a lot of money, the so-called 'lover's price', in order to satisfy this wish, because it is difficult to get together with precisely those who have the particular item to offer at the moment. "