That's kind of the crux of it.

It's one thing to lust after unobtainium. It's another to actually acquire unobtainium. So the option is to manufacture unobtainium.

I love old Pontiac GTOs. However, they're visually mostly identical to the corresponding Pontiac LeMans. The big difference is the engine and a few of GTO badges. It takes not too much of anything to put those badges on, but it's still not a GTO- even if you drop a 389 or whatever into them. It's still a LeMans.

In the military or veteran circles- there's a push about "stolen valor." People who either make up or highly embellish their military service for gain. There's one thing of telling the equivalent of "fish tales" and another to completely fabricate service or add badges or rank to a uniform. When I was a kid, right after I got out of the Army, I went down to the local VFW hall. I swear there was not ONE person in that place who didn't claim to have stormed the beaches or dropped into Normandy on D-Day. That's kind of harmless ****-talking. However, when I was a kid, I was in HHC 1/508 ABN. We had our Scout platoon and a corporal came from the Ranger Bn. The guy was all of 5' tall, was apparently a hard talkin, tough walkin' Ranger badass. One of the NCOs from the Scout platoon went to some training- got in conversation with some Ranger School cadre and found out they admired his tenacity, but the "baby Ranger" had washed out of Ranger school a few times, and when he got transferred to Panama he just sewed a Ranger tab on his shoulder. That's just wrong on a whole lot of levels.

There's a concept of "it is what it is and be proud of it." I can't lay claim to not wish something I had was something else. I've got a mid-90s Telecaster that was part of the "Foto Flame" series. They had a very clever coating that made the wood look like highly flamed maple- and thus more desirable. I just saw it as a Japanese Telecaster and that it was close in appearance and "close enough" in feel to a 60s Tele. I sanded down the body and refinished it in Krylon almond- so it would look more like a 60s Tele. No intent to remove the Made In Japan or FotoFlame decals- and it would have been worth much more in it's garish flamey clownburst finish. But I'm more than happy to have the appearance it has, it may look like an old one from 10 feet or so- but it's not intended to fool anyone.