Finally, it doesn't help that Athearn have doubled the price for the same tooling over that same period. (They now sell singles for about the same as they used to sell a 2-pack.) It has far less to do with the actual product than any of those other things, is my guess.
I don't usually complain about prices, but this is an egregious example and has thoroughly prevented me from pre-ordering (or indicating interest in them to a retailer so they can) these trailers. I have a hard time paying what Athearn wants for these for a "load".
I'm interested in the trailers. In fact, I really want a bunch of the PC versions that are currently floating around, but I'm also completely ok with waiting to get a great deal on them (or missing them entirely if that happens to come to pass).