Why is this book so expensive?

I'm a book lover and used to some books being high priced but I just don't get this one.

I hit a re-uzit shop that has a lot of used books and I'm used to paying between $2.99-$4.99 for this type of book. It's a basic sized book, not oversized or anything. They had it for $21.99 and I figured it had to be a mistake but I looked it up. $100 is about the cheapest hardback I could find. Trade paperbacks were going for more than this price but they were all listed as new.

So just curious as to what I'm missing, just a low production run is my guess but it's a popular subject so why the small run?

Killing the Bismarck Destroying the Pride of Hitlers Fleet by Iain Ballantyne.. 9781844159833 | eBay

The law of supply and demand, no doubt. The price is reasonable compared to The Ross Rifle Story.

Killing the Bismarck: Destroying the Pride of Hitlers Fleet, Ballantyne.. 9781783462650 | eBay

Someones scalping !

No, that's the paperback version. The hardbacks are the expensive ones. I found another of this author's books that was also expensive for what it was so maybe it's the author. Could also be the printing company. I just don't get it.

I have oversized books that go through the roof sometimes but not the standard size "novel" type history books.

1st Ed off ABE Killing the Bismarck: Destroying the Pride of Hitlers Fleet by Ballantyne, Iain: Very Good Hardcover (2010) 1st Edition | Hedgerow Books est.1989

That's better, still a little more than I paid for mine but it's still expensive for an old book of this type. It is also an anomaly as the next seller is at $46 and then $91 and then over $100.

And it still doesn't answer the question of why. I did see another book by the same author was also priced high so I'm suspecting it's a combination of the author and low print run. Paperbacks seem very popular so a larger print run probably would have sold.

Cannot figure price stuff out either Aragorn had something similar with a book I bought for $100/Aud some time ago;
The book is The Last Wolf By Cox a marine scout sniper, when I checked the prices before purchase they were around $700 - $1000/Aud so at $100 I snapped mine up then 2 years later they were down to $70 then in today's market $20/Aud.

So yeah fleeced again I surely fit the mantra if it was raining soup I'd pick up a fork, there is another version of that saying but not for these pages !

They probably printed another run which reduced the price. I had a book I bought for $40 and within a month they were selling between $300-$400. I didn't sell and now it's down to around $100 due to a second printing.