I Want To Understand This Mystery

I have some thoughts.
1. Any thing is worth exactly what someone will pay for it. This MS68 half dollar is worth $14,076.14.
2. The price guides don't set prices - they reflect prices. (source: Mark Ferguson article, page 56 of Sept/Oct 2023 PCGS Market Report: "Auction prices are the basis for establishing most values in the PCGS Price Guide.")
3. Condition Rarity is a differentiator. NGC has graded exactly 1 1964 D half as MS68, and none higher. However nice it may be, if you have an NGC 1964 Proof half in PR69, you have another 9,679 people to share that honor with. (Same link as above - toggle "MS" to "PF" in upper right corner).
4. Some people want the best and have the deep pockets to afford it. When has that ever been any different? (Woe to the person who covets the best and cannot afford it...).
5. Is the buyer going to take a huge beating when he sells? Probably not - there are at least two other people who hold this particular MS68 half in very high esteem. Although for a coin that had over 156 million minted, I'd be awfully leery about another MS68 being graded.
6. The imperfections of humans grading coins could be the subject of a book so I won't address it here. But in the 35 years since NGC was established in 1987 - there's only one 1964-D half dollar graded MS68. So I'm guessing NGC hasn't exactly been handing them out.

Last point, submitted with love and respect to my friend @Randy Abercrombie, is that some folks understand the lure of collectable, classic old muscle cars. And others don't.

 

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Well played, sir!

 

I will admit: I am searching for a nice (but affordable) late-70s Kawasaki KZ-900 or 1000. And that makes no sense whatsoever. But the heart wants what it wants! lol

 

At which point you go shopping again, I suppose.

 

And they will, just because in the direction they are going. There has to be a stand out coin.
It could be the one auctioned above. We will never know.