Price escalation of Tiger install CDs/DVD

[Texas Mac Man]

Tiger install CDs/DVD have always been available from Apple. However, since Leopard was released, it’s harder to find on Apple’s site. It’s listed at http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO...p;nplm=MA453Z/A
Apple’s current price is still $129 with free shipping for the DVD version, however, there is a note that it ships in 3-4 weeks. The CD version, which used to cost an addition $20 is no longer available from Apple.

However, the price at web stores has greatly escalated. I speculate that the reason for this increase is that many Mac users bought iPods, iPhones and iTouch that require Tiger 10.4 and they needed to upgrade their OS and Tiger is in limited supply.

Last fall at about the time Leopard was being released, I looked at several web stores and noted the price for Tiger on CDs. The price has now increased. For example:

At All Mac, the price for Tiger on CDs
Was $109.95 Now $179.95
(Retail Tiger install on DVD $149.95)

At Fast Mac, the price for Tiger on CDs
Was $129.95 Now $179.95

At Hardcore Mac, the price for Tiger on CDs
Was $149.99, Now $249.95
(Retail Tiger install on DVD $199.99)

I checked the Tiger on DVD price on Amazon.com.
New $265 to $393 Used $204 to $245

I found two web stores that haven't (yet) raised their price.
Aztekcomputers $121
http://aztekcomputers.com/detail.php/part_.../APPLE/MA453Z/A
MegaMacs $129
http://www.megamacs.com/item/Mac-OS-X-10.4...DVDs/view,31381

Apple Rescue also used to have reasonable prices on all OSs, however, they are no longer in business.

Tiger installers are now a “hot” commodity, like oil and gold. Demand exceeds the supply, so the price goes up. I didn’t look on eBay, but I’m sure the price has also escalated.

[sandbox]

I suspect that many people may be purchasing new Macs and discovering that most of their old software needs to be upgraded. It's probably cheaper to downgrade the OS to Tiger than replace all their other software. Demand fueled the market to jack up the price on software no longer in abundance.

[krissel]

I picked up a restore DVD good for installing on any G3/4/5 on eBay a few weeks ago for $40.  Yes, I took a chance but the disk did work on my upgraded DA.

[sunset]

I have a sneaking suspicion that any of the versions of Tiger that one can find now are not Intel compatible which means that they can't be used to 'downgrade' from Leopard on a new iMac/Mac that shipped w/ 'L' installed, etc.  =(

[Xairbusdriver]

Probably correct, sunset just another 'gotcha' to be careful about.

While my son was home for Christmas, we decided to install Tiger on an external drive so I could use PSE 4.0. However, I had already installed Leopard on the partition, so when the Installer page asking where to install came up, all the Leopard partitions/disks had the big red "color=red]![/color]" on them. I said, "Great, now I get to wipe the disk, again!" "Not so fast, Dad. Just control (or option?)-click the 'Tiger' partition." Sure enough, up came a  menu offering a "Do it anyway " or something like that. Of course, we still had to use an Intel version of Tiger. But I never knew one could do this kind of thing without wiping the 'new' OS off the volume.