Good god, is it? My current phone is an iPhone SE 3rd Gen and I paid $250 for it on eBay.
New flagship product with lots of features is more expensive than old entry level product purchased used?!
have you considered that you might just not be the target market ? :)
Not sure what expressing the cost of your current phone has to do with the discussion here, but I’m guessing this phone certainly isn’t for you. Some people choose to spend more on their phones, and some less.
256GB galaxy z fold8 is ~$1900
That’s not a brand new folding phone. Those start at $1900 MSRP from what I see. However, you can get them a few hundred cheaper. Some of them cost even more than Apple.
People have been saying “Oh my God, who would pay $600 for a phone“ for 20 years. Clearly there are such people.