Personal vs. Market Values

Truffle oil...not to be confused with snake oil.

Well, sometimes they can be exactly the same thing ...
https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/national/truffle-oil-fake-no-truffles-priceonomics

1 - I have had freshly shaved white truffle in Piemonte that was almost tasteless, and I have had French black truffle that was so flavourful that only a few shards were needed to flavour a dish.

2 - there are some things that some people are simply not able to taste/hear/smell. I am a wine nut. I have known otherwise gifted tasters that were not sensitive to trichloroanisole (TCA) the chemical that indicates that a wine has been 'corked', and when I was saying that a particular wine was corked, they didn't know what I was talking about as they couldn't detect it (a serious shortcoming in a taster as when TCA is present, it affects the fruit in the wine - sometimes rendering it undrinkable but sometimes just muting slightly the fruit elements, and that would seem to an TCA insensitive taster as just being a wine they just didn't like as opposed to a flawed wine.

Asking someone that has basically no hearing above 4000 hz (not uncommon for those with noise induced hearing loss - NIHL) to assess a system for high note reproduction is pointless.  

from the Wall Street Journal:

It's a fact -- people react to truffles in vastly different ways. Now scientists are closing in on why. Nearly 25% of the population do not smell androstenone, a chemical that contributes to truffle's signature musky aroma (and makes female pigs go into mating stance). Another 40% of people are keenly sensitive to androstenone; they say it smells like rotten wood or sweat. The rest of the population likes the smell.

No one has asked if you could hear the truffle oil. An important consideration imho. 

Certsinly i I wouldn’t use the stuff as record cleaning fluid. 

As far as it goes this has the potential to be a fascinating & terribly valid question. So let's take it where it's dying to go.  "Personal vs. Market Values"  necessarily also means Market vs Personal values.  This is where it gets (too often savagely) peculiar.  The psychological terrain of reacting to the unconscious forces made conscious & acted on by attempting to sell at prices rationalized as fair market value dominates it more assertively but is really equally present in both instances.  More neurosis acted on in the first instance with too many not understanding when it is time for something to go out of your life it is incumbent on you to do so as elegantly & quickly as you can.  The time, effort & energy money represents being squandered due to self-propelling neurosis of pretending to get it back by being stubborn in getting a too specific, arbitrary number -  is too often (by no means always) a constant wonder. 

It bears mentioning the charlatans the question refers to selling snake oil are often selling to those making fear-based decisions.  Concerning how the audio makes them look to others.  Status seeking is always a fear-based approach. As is most purchasing in the lifestyle category.  These buyers are often not looking for quality audio in the first place.  At least not primarily.  They fund the industry in large measure however & we should be grateful for their contribution. 

@john123
There are a lot of pronouns in your first paragraph. Could you be a little more specific, and what exactly does this mean:

The psychological terrain of reacting to the unconscious forces made conscious & acted on by attempting to sell at prices rationalized as fair market value dominates it more assertively but is really equally present in both instances.

and this:

The time, effort & energy money represents being squandered due to self-propelling neurosis of pretending to get it back by being stubborn in getting a too specific, arbitrary number - is too often (by no means always) a constant wonder.

I'm afraid right now this reads like a song to me, where anyone can interpret them in a variety of ways the author may not have intended.

Best,
E