Thanks for your input Mel. Appreciate your insider information. You might say that I'm a Hard Rock Cafe collector with over 700 pins in my collection. There are pins that are truly scarce (a few hundred made.... or certainly less than a thousand) that don't bring anywhere near $250-$300 each, which is why I questioned the 18,000 number. I hear what you are saying about these being a medallion, but just like chips & tokens are the mainstay in our hobby (sure others collect fringe areas) pins are the mainstay in Hard Rock collections. I don't dispute what you are saying... I'm just scratching my head and wondering, "how come"?