Sure, historically, they were much cheaper. If I recall correctly, the EK Blue I got from EK was probably something like $10.
I don't know the specifics when it comes to artisans, because I really haven't been around since 2011 and it's amazing to see how this all exploded in the years that have passed, but I do know Clack was never particularly interested in making large profit from the craft. What I can say is that in any collector's market, retail pricing will increase not because of greed, but to combat resellers attempting to make large profit off items. If the initial cost is more significant, the likelihood of resale for a profit becomes lessened. You can see this in virtually anything that is released and becomes collectible - for example, I've seen a lot of this in the limited edition "coloured" vinyl and boxsets bands were releasing in the past 10 or so years.
It can be argued that this has the opposite effect - pushing resale prices further up, but this isn't something directly observable in practice. The desirability of older items that have long since been produced simply continues to go up, and the pricing along with it.
Beyond this, the state of domestic and global markets has changed quite significantly over the past few years, and, as we all know, the cost of material typically continues to rise.
