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The big difference in cost is in the number of months of aging. Cheap Parmigiano-Reggiano might be 20-24 months old. It gets much better tasting, and more expensive, at 36 months, and better still (and more costly) at 40 months. We'd buy Parmigiano-Reggiano at Iper La Grande, a massive grocery store (imagine if a Wegmans and a Target merged) in northern Italy; there 40 month old would be about twice the price as 24 month old.

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That some really odd pricing, there's no investment out there where you could purchase for x, let it sit for 16 months, and then sell for 2x. You'd think the manufacturers or some other entity would just be buying all the 24month to age another 16 months to double their money (less some warehouse / transport overhead).

This isn't just stacking palettes of crackers. Parmesan requires climate-controlled warehouses, and must be often tested, repositioned, and (yes) guarded. It's also a more risky investment.

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