-Nice note!
The interest in HAE comes from a smaller group of prefix collectors. I collected prefixes years ago and understand that appeal. ..
I doubt there are runs of Unc HAE’s out there.
We agree on many things & I would venture to say that the only reason Charlton gives GEM UNC 2011 HAE a BV of $500 is simply
due to demand. The 2011 HAE change-over became the
sweetheart of the Journey $5 as I recall the craze of trying to find one easily myself. It was only like yesterday. But here's the thing: I saw several UNC auctioned off on eBay during the time they were being released & bid (& lost) on many of them. Most went for $250-$350 but as I wrote before I lost track (& interest). I kept thinking I would find one like I found an APM $5.
As you can well imagine there was indeed a lot of speculation on how many of these
"sweethearts" were out there during this time. You could search this site for some of that speculation. And, as usual, I got many members here offering to sell me their spare circulated HAE's. I had about 4 different members ask me if I wanted to buy them for 3 to 4X BV but back then I felt that their offers seemed ludicrous (always a VF/Ef for the price of AU, etc). It especially seemed crazy to me when many of the 2011 "lost prefixes" (HAF-HAL) were going for a fraction of the cost & had similar low # reported. Nobody offered to sell me these so I hunted for them on eBay as well. What I found interesting (& crazy) was that the number of auctions for HAE far outnumbered the auctions for HAH, HAJ & HAL. Only HAF, HAG & HAK were about as plentiful as the HAE. I also remember talking to a member of the Charlton pricing panel, who appeared to have inside info, and he stated emphatically that the lost prefixes were far more plentiful than I (& many others) were speculating. Not long after that, we saw 1 or 2 bricks of HAF & HAG being offered. I have never seen multiples of the other lost prefixes. I still think that HAH, HAL and HAJ are just as tough as the sweetheart HAE but since they're not designated change-overs, will probably always lag behind in BV.
So, bottom line is, I would never pay $500 for an UNC HAE even if it were offered to me by a kind collector friend. I just feel it's too much. Also, I would not compare the story of the 2011 HAE with what little we know re: the IND. I would prefer to compare their release with the end of the original 2000 Journey $10 & what happened to the BEL, BEK, BEP & 2003 BER prefixes. The new security stripped BEU-BEW/FEP to FEU were being rushed into circulation & it is speculated that the BOC withdrew the last of those $10 "lost prefixes" much like they may have done with the $5 (HAE - HAL) as the polymer was being introduced. The BEL prefix became the "sweetheart" of the Tens many years before the 2011 HAE (though its not a change-over).