In 2025 we will look back on 2022 pricing and think it was pretty reasonable is my guess. They are pricing these products for delivery in 2022, so they need to figure in possible further increases in the costs of raw materials, labor and shipping, none of which are likely to go down, as opposed to up. The last thing they want to do is produce products that are sold at a loss. Better to be conservative, price them at the worst possible case increase, and have reduced orders. There are plenty of reasonably priced locos and rolling stock in the new catalog (the C-Liners for example), and I'm sure Lionel has reasons for their various pricing of the different MTH tooling as well as their own tooling.
Comparing MTH prices for delivery in 2021 of a set of limited runs with sunk tooling costs with Lionel prices for 2022 delivery with new tooling or newly purchased tooling is not a realistic vision of what's coming.
