I guess I've just never wanted a 1948 Airliner. It falls outside the age of the appliances we have set out to collect. I am sure that if someone wants this range they will pay that price and it is a piece of movie memorabilia which must be a driving factor in the price. The fact that it appears in a movie does not make it a must have artifact for me. Before the stills posted here, I had only seen it in magazine ads where it seemed like a nice electric range, but only a single oven 40" range and not one I wanted. I hope someone who wants one is able to buy it so I wish buyer and seller all the best.
We have, fortunately, mostly found the appliances in the collection and some were given to us after the newspaper articles about our collection, so we have not had to pay prices this high for our ranges. I guess another factor is that the advent of the internet, while certainly increasing the availability of old appliances, has also increased their prices. Before the possibilities brought about by the internet, old appliances were sold in charity stores, the want ads and second hand appliance dealers which is where we found some of ours and out behind some of those places as well in the 1980s and 1990s. I found my 1961 turquoise Frigidaire in the loading area of an appliance dealer on a Sunday afternoon. If John had not brought the truck over to get it, it would have gone to the scrapper Monday morning. I guess I am like the old relative who is aghast at modern prices. It's one of the things that comes with being old. My mother used to complain about paying 49 cents for 5 pounds of potatoes in the 1950s and now bakers are twice that for one pound.