from my perspective, holding an elite cut has more to do with clout than it does anything else. to have an original cut of ATF, MTF, Arcata Trainwreck, OG Kush, ECSD, NYCD, etc, it's a "i have this and it's rare" type thing. some of them are super finicky and require a dialed environment to express themselves properly.
however, some of them did come from massive phenohunts, others came from lucky shots from bagseed.
as for the price, i'll never pay what people ask for them. half the people selling cuts treat them as if they're growing money on trees. I'm sorry, $150+ a cut is bullshit, especially for the buyer. they literally have a mother plant those cuts are coming off of, they'll be able to take more cuts in two weeks. asking that price is simply capitalizing on a known brand THEY didn't create. think of it like scalping. I keep mother plants, and give out clones to whoever needs/wants em. are they "elite" genetics? no, they don't carry that branding. they'll still knock your dick in the dirt though.
at most I'd pay $20 for a cut I really want. all the pricing is, is gatekeeping and it's counterintuitive to the what the culture used to be. emery and many of us others used to dream of starting up a ton of seedlings and planting them all over in public places, or producing enough seeds that everyone could grow and hit the prohibitionists with a green wave. none of it ever came to fruition, but it used to be about sharing the love and good genetics and now it's all a money grab.
stepping off my soapbox.
