Can't say that I blame him for selling, or at such a high price, given the circumstances. I'd probably do the same, and in fact, at one time almost did...
When AMD released the XP series of CPU's on October 9th, 2001, the first chips out of the gate were the XP1800+ AGKGA core Pallys. The release coincided with the first stop on their initial "eXtreme Performance" Tour (XPP1).
On Oct 10th, they had their 2nd Tour stop, in Boston, and I was lucky enough to win a CPU and motherboard combo. An XP1800+, and a MSI K7T266 Pro (KT266) motherboard.
At the time, the CPU was selling for about $230 on e-BAY..... I was mighty tempted...
Still got it, although the board died recently...
That ol' XP1800+ is now sitting on my desktop, in the Newegg shipping packaging I got another CPU in, awaiting a new motherboard....
B.