The prices aren't what did it for me, Getting married in 2009,and having a Wife, and now 18 and 22 year old kids living at home as well as my commute going from less than 4 miles each way to almost 40 miles, plus 58-60 hour weeks were the norm before getting married, now 48-54 hours is getting common again, the PRIORITIES have changed. When I was single lived close to work and got a LOT of over-time a couple $1,000.00+ locomotives a year were nothing, it's been Quite awhile since I bought any Legacy locomotives.
Another BIG FACTOR in not buying any High end is the UNRELIABILITY of the new stuff, my TMCC Crane came DOA right out of the box, my Legacy Big Boy died shortly after the warranty did, and just this past Christmas season my Black FEF3 died, well outside the warranty period, but if it was an automobile it would have less than 5,000 miles on it. I don't have room for a permanent layout so these have EXTREMELY low use on them. There are several locomotives that I would LOVE to have, but I haven't even been tempted to sell anything to buy them, because I just don't have any faith in the newer electronics, too many low time failures already, lesson learned.
As far as Prices go, I don't think they are all that bad, yeah, I would love to see prices lower than they are, but my JLC H7 2-8-8-2 sold new for IIRC, $1649.99 (I don't recall what year it came out) the Legacy version recently released had an MSRP of $1349.99 and I saw street prices down to $1175.00. It has more complex( I can't say BETTER) electronics, and an MSRP that is $300.00 less than 10? years ago!
I already have enough stuff to open a small train store, so it has gotten easier to pass on new releases, it is going to take something pretty seriously hard to pass up for me to buy anything expensive now. About the only thing that I can think of right now that I would really FIND the money for would be a Legacy AC-9 (where are you John Korling? you are going to be busy bit**ing for a long time) in a Skirted Daylight version (Sorry Hotwater) SP NEVER had Skirted or Daylighted AC-9's but that is a mistake that I would like to see Lionel fix, hey they Daylighted a Cab-forward, and our trains DO run on THREE RAILS. Produce a Legacy(NOT Vision Line, don't want to spend THAT much)Skirted, Daylight AC-9, and I will take the chance with the P*SS Poor Electronics QC, one more time.
Doug