[69goatboy]

It starts as people wanting their ride to look like the one they couldn't afford.

Then it blossoms into "Well, my car now has everything the real thing had, so I now consider it the same as a real thing, including the sale price".

Then you have the: "I got duped into paying for the real thing, and I don't want to take the monetary hit, so I'll pass on the fake mark-up to the next schmoe".

And it just escalates from there.

I imagine that it started much earlier, but for me I first started seeing it in the 80's, where kids would scour the junkyards for SS badges to slap on whatever Chevy they were driving.