I personally don't like the fact that prices are going up, but I do think there are reasons behind the increases other than "just greed". Of course pricing has gone up drastically in the last 10+ years, but so has the quality of the sculpts and paint application. When quality went up, this attracted the attention of future collectors.
That being said, when demand for a high quality product is desired you have to bring in top talent. Top talent wants more money. As popularity and demand rises so do artist wages, not to mention the rising cost of licensing.
Production is another thing to consider. Materials to make figures now are higher quality and cost more due to the rising cost oil and other commodities. Not only that but you have to consider upgrades to the manufacturing process. They are spitting these figures out way ahead of schedule now which could probably be attributed to upgrades in equipment, R&D, manpower etc etc.
Is it really HT's fault for charging us more or is it the consumers fault for demanding a higher quality product that we want not a year from now, but yesterday?