[bgalbrecht]

I blame the publishers. If you look at many older ebooks, the publisher released an ebook 5-10 years ago, priced it comparable to the hardback, or possibly trade paperback, and never changed the price even when a mass market paperback was released. By now, most, if not all of those editions are out of print, but the ebook is still available at the hardback or trade paperback price. For the publisher, this is a really great situation, they get a new burst in sales in basically dead books as the new ebook readers come to market and readers seek to replace older favorite books (or earlier books in series) in ebook editions.

You can tell that it's the publishers' fault when you check the 5 or 6 ebook retailers and see that the prices are all about the same, except maybe at Amazon, where it's usually priced at the mass-market paperback price if one is available. I don't know if this is because only Amazon is able to play hardball and makes the publishers accept a lower price, or if the other retailers just don't have the staffing to ask the publishers to double-check the pricing when there are lower cost print editions available.