[skewart]

If they're the best material for the job then manufacturers will pay the inflated luxury-good prices. People selling gold are selling it at market price, regardless of what their buyers do with it. Just because something only adds X amount of value, however that's defined, doesn't mean that one will be able to buy it for at or less than X.

[jstanley]

I was asserting the opposite: if it adds less than X amount of value, nobody would buy it for X.

That it sells for X proves that it adds at least X amount of value.