If you take a look at http://bussecollector.com/catalog/, you'll see that this AA is actually much lower-priced than prior versions -- although I recognize that doesn't address your basic question.

I've gone $997.00 (pre-shipping) for a Blade show special-priced satin Gladius, $770.00 for a secondary-market Busse AK (with kydex), and $647.00 (pre-tax) for a SHBM at Knob Creek. From a purely practical perspective, none of those were smart buys, but they were worth it to me. That's really the only benchmark that makes any sense, because you either have to value a knife by what it's worth on the secondary market, which you can't control and may change as quickly as the prices in any collectable market, or what it's worth to you, which you alone determine. Currently (although subject to change) I'm fairly confident that I could get back at least what I spent on each of those three, although I bought them for myself and am not looking to sell them.

I'll digress into a related thought for a moment: I bought a few Buck Nighthawks (model 650GRS-B) for around $50 each about a year ago, along with several Short Nighthawks (model 655BO-B) for $25 (+ S&H) each. I'm not saying that 420HC is the equal of any of the Bussekin steels, but they're sturdy, heavy duty knives, made of adequate steel, having comfortable handles and a sheath, with a lifetime warranty for a very low price -- the sheaths are poorly designed for a survival/combat knife [but better than just a cardboard sleeve]. They intrigued me in a "riddle of steel" sort of way because I considered them to be way under-priced for what they were, and still do. However, that's what they cost, in my opinion, mainly because they really got hammered about those sheaths in reviews, so the price dropped to get people to buy them.

$275 was a heavy markup for a secondary-market Dog Father, but it may have come with a nice sheath and you obviously like it, so that was the value of your knife. You're not alone in thinking the AA isn't worth the release price, but it definitely will be to some people. If the secondary market holds up, some will even sell for a significant profit down the road, perhaps not to you or me, but to somebody.