Warner in milking that trend for big dollars. $30-40 for a single CD on Rhino Handmade:
Mailorder only, no stores or distributors to worry about. They get all of the money and be aware they may charge you sales tax even if you are not in california.
How many people have ever even heard of Eric Quincy Tate?
You're only ever going to be able to sell 4 or 5 thousand copies of a record like that, and if you pay a good studio to remaster them that's going to cost you ten to fifteen grand spread out over only a few discs.
Clearly they are making a healthy margin - if they have gauged the demand for the recording right (a tricky proposition with stuff this rare).
But why would they only sell a budget unremastered version of Moondance by Van Morrison for $6.99 at outlets when thousands and thousands of American and European fans are paying $30 or more at Amazon Japan for the Japan-only remaster of the album? It's nowhere near as rare and obscure an album as most of the stuff on Handmade.
Sony has shown that they can sell both the budget and the premium remastered version of the same albums in the US and Europe - why hasn't Warners realized this?