I'm going to re-align my point slightly.
I elected not to buy the bucket seats when new for two reasons.
1) I couldn't see a set before placing my order and wondered how impractical they would be for getting free-riders in the back, and
2) When all said and done they're just seats. They don't even have the inflating bolsters like in the RS4, and at the time I had visions of how I'd rather spend the £1600 than on another FACTORY UPGRADE.
Now given I didn't spec the RNS-E either (knowing I would do that myself later on), I guess that either makes me a ****** cheapskate, or just plain poor. However I have almost EVERY other factory fit option on the car, so it was more a judgement of VFM.
Therefore if an S3 buyer has not selected that option at £1600 from new, it seems somewhat unlikely they will fork out £2500 for a set of used / removed / stored / transported about ones.
Maybe for the second hand market buyer who's paid £20k for an S3 and really wants them then it's a fair upgrade, but for me whilst I think they are stunning to look at I just don't think (like the RNS-E), they are quite worth the premium. I'd rather spend the money on performance mods, but that's just my bag.
If they were cheap (and it depends on your perspective of cheap), they would have sold long ago, but fact is we are in a fair recession, and some people may just have alternative priorities to 'Gucci'(?) seats. I have no axe to grind with the seller, I just purely stated a personal viewpoint based on asking price, and both the wife and I have pretty well paid corporate jobs so I am assuming that that means we're just tightwads or at an age where other things seem more important to us.