Crazy Bidding on Ornithoptera tithonus subspecies cytherea

[trehopr1]

I just saw on EBay a crazy bidding battle going on over a male of O. Tithonus cytreae. Now, I'm hardly knowledgeable enough to differentiate the many different subspecies of Tithonus of which I have read their are at least 4 named. This subspecies is not one of them. At least, to the best of my knowledge using the books that I have.
The thing is the crazy price it has already reached ($1050.00 U.S.) and the bid does not end until Thursday Sept. 22nd. I've never seen a Tithonus go this sky high. Am I just out of touch on market value, or subspecies rarity. Or is this yet another case of 2 or 3 collectors beating each other up monetarily to get the "win" and bragging rights ?

[deliasfanatic]

The proper spelling is cytherea (it's misspelt in the listing), and yes, that's a normal price. It's a scarce ssp, and the only one that's quite distinct (very green compared to others).

[Deleted]

Collectors sometimes have to wait for years for that certain specimen to become available and know that it will be years before they see it again, it has happened to me, so if they can afford it they go for it, always good news for the seller, and although the price is high things that are offered this rarely don't often go down in value over the years.

[trehopr1]

Thank you deliasfanatic and dp1965 for your kind and knowledgeable comments.

[nomad]

I have one male. It is a very large example. I bought mine at Juvisy insect fair for a lot less than that, but I think the price is around 1,000 dollars at a fair. One year at Juvisy there were lots of them including females, the next year hardly any.

[mothman27]

Now $1,175!

[nomad]

I think the price is starting to look a bit crazy, while it is a rare bug, it is certainly not a World Rarity. I guess that's ebay for you.