Well... first of all, we can assume he's willing to take less thank $18k.
Secondly, If someone was willing to pay $3k for THIS:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... egory=1168
which is probably an AFA60 at best (I'm really not familiar with their grading, but it has water damage, a hole, etc). Hell, it might not even be gradeable as sealed.
I could definitely see a well to do man of means being willing to part with $12k or so for this particular Flag. This is, after all, the holy grail of holy grails for Joe collectors.
Have we EVER seen an AFA'ed 70+ Fortress Maximus go to auction? I'd be really curious to see what it'd go for!
EDIT: According to some posts on another board:
"AFA 85 Fort Max US went for $7,000.00 4 years ago.
MISB C-9 US Fort Max went for $8,000.00 1 year ago from a respected US Seller to Shanghai, China."
So that *probably* translates to roughly $12k 2 years ago, when we thought everything was fine... and about $6k in todays economy, LOL!
EDIT Part Deux: Anyone else see that "from a respected US Seller TO SHANGHAI, CHINA one, and immediately think: We're gonna see some knock-offs soon! God, I hope not. At least not accurate ones