Genuine question, but why do people who sink tons of money into a pin believe they should not only make what they spent back, but also a good profit on top?

Example, I buy a pin for 2k because it's worth 2k, if I sink 4k of parts, time etc rebuilding it does that magically make it worth 6k?

I've put time into games and generally I make a loss because I know I'll never recover the time and parts spent on it, usually I can recover some of the parts costs but that's it. A games only worth so much and if you go massively over what it's worth in time and parts, that's your decision to do that. Why should you expect someone else to foot the bill? (Unless they've paid for a high end resto, but that's a different story.)