He did have proof persay(the cowmangler dude not the other guy), but it was just bad and very very minimal. Also being a collector my self I understand where your thought is coming from. I collect lvl 77 stuff(pref timed drop as well), I pay for that unlike most people who just toss those bits of info aside and sell the item for what its worth on the spreadsheets to some one else who doesn't care about the lvl or if its crafted or not(or to some one who knows others do and sells it for more to those who collect), so back to NC things, any regular trader who come across a NC weapons is gonna look at it and trow it out they are worthless to most and prices are set by majority(like here on backpack.tf) so if the majority of people think its worthless its probably worthless. Think of NC weapons collecting in this way "One mans trash is another mans treasure". Just remember it only has its valve to someone who wants it.

The original guys who set all the NC weapons prices had no physical proof because no one sold them on place where you could easily reference the items and trades, and during that time I remember NCs being oh Idk VALUELESS anyways, technically they are worth about 10:1ish on a scrap kinda like crap crates as well. Also 4 people buying something for more doesn't set the market price. In order for something to truly change in value people have to want it, more people have to want it for the higher price then those who want it for the current price(like with buds and keys people are willing to pay 3.66 for a key now and 27 keys for a buds), go into an actual trade server and say "Selling Non craft-able weapons 1 scrap each" and see how long it takes you to sell one, record it and post it on youtube, if it's anything less then forever I'll eat my words with a rusty fork.

This is NOT proof, it is not even a maybe! 4 threads do not speak for the population of TF2 buyers and sellers. There are 20 people selling BMOC's for 1 bud does that mean we auto raise BMOC to one bud? No we don't, because we know the value is less than that just like most people know dirty weapons are worth, at most, half a normal weapon to one weapon