Actually what you said is very true. The market determines the value - always.
As an aside - and no ill will to our hosts on this - but many people consider the "price" of an item to be a reflection on its cost to manufacture, perhaps with marketing and tranportation and other costs added in.
Nada. Dead wrong. Totally bass ackwards.
Let me elaborate. Most folks, if trying to determine the price of something they sell, would go from the bottom up. That is, determine costs of materials, factor in labor costs, and say its worth $X.
Hoever, in manufacturing, we look at what the market will bear. Always. The research is done, we determine the "price value" of an item with a defined feature set. Then determine feasibility and perhaps need - in relation to other existing products. When its determined to go ahead with a product - engineering and production are instructed to produce it at the lowest possible cost, to enable the greatest profit. However - up until that time, the cost is not known. Its been investigated as to feasibility, but never actually determined. We hopefully look for items that cost almost zero to produce, and yet have a very high valve in the market.
For instance, I once made springs for a certain Colt revolver. The popular replacement "light spring" was $9.00. I could make 12 springs per hour, and the cost of the wire was about $0.02 per spring. The spring winder cost me about $10 to make, plus two hours time. How much to sell that .02 spring for? I could say, I was worth $24 per hour, and call that $2 per spring in labor, add the $0.02 in wire and say ok its a $4.25 spring. Turns out that the customers liked the hand made spring better than the $9 one. So after a very short time, the price of my springs jumped to $14.25. Yah, I'm a greedy SOB. The market supported it, and whats more, I sold MORE at the higher price - go figure.
End of manufacturing economics 101 for now.
(does the Jedi hand movement) "you dont want that guitar, its not the Les Paul you've been looking for..."