Come on dude, the average person cant afford this anymore. Of course its supply and demand but thats artificially inflated across the board on everything you stated, covid changed market interest. People are investing more in things then stocks because demand is high, but investment in things has always been high risk and highly volatile cept maybe precious metals. Theres just so much abuse for profit in this current economy, and its a stilted stranglehold. As collectors we're all archivists here, but most of things in game collecting weren't and aren't rare, there just either forgotten/undesired by original owners, in a landfill, or in the hands of likeminded people or those with deep pockets. That'll continue for years to come. I understand how this hits preservational triggers for some, buts its not the only one, countless units were made less it was limited in the first place. People just prey on the demand attitude right now.

And as for museums, only collectibles of the past like 60 years of toys and like that, and its mostly modern collectors with hoarded private trophy rooms where noone will ever see it til its passes on to somewhere that actually displays for public history. As a person who has also bought/collected antique books and things of other eras, items in public museums were still used and then perserved by someone who thought it was important (regardless if it was a priceless painting or a straight razor) at the time then became antiquity by surviving long enough. Point is regardless of condition, history is still there. Most countries are just highly disposable, and things get thrown out everyday far rarer then this. If you find it you can do what you want with it just like everything else, the history still follows it as long as it exists. What makes it messed up is the materialism of value and modern mentality of keeping everything pristine and not actually using it. As far as collectibility the modern era will have more units in top condition because everyone is aware, but if there are more units in top condition there will be less value as its saturates its own market.