You can thank JJP for that.
Once WOZ was announced Stern figured, what the hell... if Jack can ask those prices, so can I. Here's an LE for ya!

On the bright side, it has also opened up the market for smaller boutique producers like JPOP and SKITB. I don't think that, without this new benchmark pricing, smaller companies could make mini runs and still be viable.

If the themes and designs were right for me, I'd buy NIB almost regardless of the price.
I think it is more the recent let-downs from Stern and even JJP that sour me... more than price.

I am choosing to support lower cost projects like SkitB's predator based on their business model and end user focus, as well as higher-end games like Zombie Adventureland due to their willingness to develop an unlicensed theme.

I can see where price would play into the decision to buy, but for me there are a lot more variables at play these days. Will Stern let this game wither on the vine with bad code? Will it have proper QC before leaving the plant? etc. etc...

Regardless of his reasons, he has set the market price. Stern would be stupid not to capitalize... and they do still make a sub $5K game... just not the LE.

If JJP's cost increases were purely related to being a startup, I would have to ask "why am I as a buyer floating the bill for your startup costs?" Where will all this extra cost be evidient in the game itself? In reality JJP is attempting to make a "better" product and that is a huge reason for the price increase. Stern is also offering more for the extra cost. The real question is, is it enough? Are you getting enough value from the additional features?

If we are comparing apples to apples, you will have to compare Stern's LE models to JJP's... since Jack is really only creating LEs.

I would have to say that Stern has certainly stepped up their game on the LE models in terms of rich features. However, execution, code and QC have really let them down.

Well, here I will say that good design and code trumps all.
Tron has 1 toy and, in my opinion, it is the best all around game Stern has released in a very, very long time.
Everything in that game just comes together and that is a result of great design from Borg, Lyman and the entire team... plus a great license/theme.