It's called supply and demand.  Every so often 1 more Alpha Crux is drilled, or does, leaving only 50 or so NIB in the world.
Will a 2020 Camaro get you from A to B?  Sure will, does that make a 1969 Camaro worth any less?  Nope.  Everytime someone totals or customizes(drills) a 69 Camaro, the remaining untouched\undrilled ones have a smaller supply, become harder to find, but their demand never changes.
Economics 101.

Not everyone wants a classic car, in fact the vast majority of people would scoff at the price they're worth.  That's fine, but it doesn't change the reality that as long as people with knowledge of that car continue to pay and transfer ownership of that make\model for equal or greater costs each day, then the price is perfectly reasonable.

You might scoff at paying $500 for an Alpha Crux, but they sell within the first 24hrs of being posted for that price.  You don't have to agree, but you should try to understand.

In the grand scheme, bowling is such a cheap hobby.  A $500 bowling ball pales into comparison to a single club in my golf bag, that get replaced equally as often, and I have 14 of those.  That's before we even talk about $50 rounds of golf vs $2 bowling games, and every golf ball I lose adds to the tally of each round.  Range finder, tees, gloves, dress codes, yadda yadda.

Perspective matters.  If you don't wanna pay $500 for a rare collectors ball, I completely get it.  If you aren't interested in a $80k Corvette, I get that too.  But trying to rationalize it as if a Prius will get you from A to B the same way, is laughable at best.

Funnily enough, it could be said that we are in a golden age of bowling. What I mean by that is that a lot of us are in bowling's Goldilocks' Zone, where we have seen the evolution of it and more importantly the evolution of the technology that has gone into bowling. We've used a lot of the older equipment along with what is out there today. And since that older equipment is getting harder and harder to come by, especially NIB, you're going to obviously see the higher prices in that gear. In short, what we're seeing on eBay is similar to all of the things going on in the trading card industry, where the older gear has become collector's items.

I'll admit; prior to the Black Widow Purple Pearl Urethane coming out, I was scouring eBay for a NIB 15lb. Faball Blue Pearl Hammer to go along with the Blue Hammer I've had since 1989. I was wanting the Pearl in 15 because I already have it in 16 and I don't throw 16lb gear anymore. My intention was to use those, as they are still durable and useful to this day. But now that the Widow has come out, and subsequently the Pink Pearl Urethane, I don't see any need to find one, let alone buy it. I have seem them selling for around the $600 range.

I've had others on my list as well: NIB Turbo X, NIB Nitro/R, NIB TPC Warrior. The only one I have picked up, which I was going to punch up, was the Ebonite Optyx Formula 1, but I've decided not to. If anything, they are great for the trophy case, and that's about it, at least for me right now. But with all of the balls we have out there that are now considered "classic", it's easy to see why they are going up in value and why people are posting such high prices on them.

There are two types of people in this: those looking to buy them to use them, and those looking to buy them for the trophy. It all just depends on which one of those two are looking at it, and if they pull the proverbial trigger.

BL.