People should be used to this steelbook collecting price malarkey now. No buyer is happy with it and every seller loves it.
The fact is, for you to be a collector and really enjoy it you need to be prepared to spend the money either at retail level or the secondary market, money you are comfortable spending.
It doesn't matter how many times it gets raised about a price of a steelbook, whether it's on ebay or via a retailer, nothing will ever change.
Everybody complains about ebay sellers hiking up prices, myself included, and yes my opinion is that it's greed and that's part of human nature to be that way, but at the same time I'm;
a) Aware there's nothing I can so about it, and
b) Smart enough not to spend my own hard earned money on items that are NOT worth the prices they are listed at... in my opinion.
The sellers will argue that it's not greed and it's their perogative to make a few quid as the platform exists to do so. However, same sellers also hate buying at their own prices, which makes me laugh a lot .
Something is only worth its price in the minds of the seller and the buyer happy to buy it. For me it's only worth its price that I bought it at from retail, because that's it's origin. That will be argued of course as no doubt people would raise
years old collectors figures of star wars memorabilia, other other movie 'antiques' sitting in their collection etc, but again, that's their opinion and why I don't collect what they do.
Between greedy sellers and desperate buyers of ebay this magical crazy price has been invented which then in turn puts the same magic in the heads of other sellers, and then that level exists where everybody is chasing after what they genuinely believe is something special (in the end all made from the same ol' material folks) and our domino effect takes off. eBay is the platform to do it and retailers do exactly the same thing through their stores. You're either happy to buy or you're not.
Others who do this selling malarkey hate it when you throw out your opinion about what is "right" or "wrong" about the steelbook collecting community, but it is just that... an opinion, and nobody is right or wrong as it's your own morals/beliefs.
I'm financially comfortably happy to pay for the Collectors edition at retail price... I won't be happy to pay for it on ebay. Even this post will get flack but none of us are going to change our beliefs and you must just spend to your means if you want any real enjoyment out of collecting and that includes standing your ground and passing on an item you are not comfortable paying the price for, even if it ends up selling for triple months later.