Looking at your answer, I guess that you must have misunderstood the subject.
I have not written a summary of "comical ideas" about the mineral market in the US, but a simple explanation regarding "Hi end" collecting and Hi end specimen. My comments have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the overall collectors market (which I know very well, both in the US and in Europe).
I do, however, not at all agree with your comment: "The "high end" dealers are a small minority, and not statistically representative of the american market in general". No, thats climbing the horse from the back. Fact is, that a quite large number of very wealthy people in the U.S. invest in collectibles and of those, an increasing number of them harbor a love of fine mineral specimen. In fact, there ar more "elite" collectors active today than at any other time in history. (Source: (1) Barrons, Sep. 20, 1999; U.S. Trust Survey of the top of U.S. taxpayers; (2) Min Record 31, 1, 5: (2000); The mineral collecting elite; summary.).
Most people at the upper level of business or a profession, e.g. those who make this large and increasing fine mineral market, simply don't have the time for an intense level of dedication to minerals. They can evolve into well-informed appreciators of the beauty of minerals, but they still want help in safely guiding the expenditure of large sums of money in a field where each and every object is unique in its own way.
There are no price catalogs to use as a guide and there is no comprehensive index of all known top level (Hi end) specimen.
Or, as simple as that: The "Hi end" collectors need their time to make enough money thru their business, to buy "Hi end"- specimen from dealers whom they trust due to his "expertise". The "Hi end"- dealers exploit the confidence and the wallet of their customers (in your words: "... he might find some idiot to pay that much), selling them the sensation of something "incredible, fantastic, very beautiful, unique, incomparable, one of its kind (I'm just using some of the overall hi end dealers syntax) - for astronomic prices.
This is the world of "Hi ends" and its players. And the world of "Hi end" specimen dealers ( yes: you' re right: not only American, but a surprisingly large number of French, British, German, Austrian and Italian dealers, too) . And that's what I tried to summarize - I have never had in mind to describe a statistically representative picture of the U.S. market in general.
Can U live with that ?