so its what the buyer can afford - if you have the talent  buy the low end and work it up yourself , its more fun

Agreed. I've been slowly bringing mine up to high end over a lot of years, this is a game that really deserves the treatment. There's a lot of great games out there, but this one is sought after exactly for among other things the reasons 4_amusement_only  posted - clever ruleset and audio. Add to that that there's few coming off route anymore and the containers seem empty of them - supply and demand coupled with the games great features is really pushing prices up. Fortunately not as high as the US prices seem to have gone yet, if I didn't have the game I would grab one now in case the prices do hit the heady US heights. And if they don't you you a great game to play anyway!!