lads, thats not overly excessive for the right bike 998RS's are seriously rare and with any sort of history or heritage are worth a shedload of money ...
These are pure race bikes .... not dumbed down bikes for te road a'la Desmosedici ... completely different and no way of comparing them ....
If you want a pukka Ducati race bike then thats what the 998RS is ... if you just want to wave your willy and show the world how much money you have then buy the Desmosedici (and then be too scared to ride it)
But seriously. It still is a lot of money, I had a little look into them a while ago and could have found one or two a lot cheaper. I guess it comes down to what spares package comes with it. If it has a few engines or something like that then fair enough, if it doesn't and it comes ready for a service then it's WAY over priced!!!