It ends me buying one too, or wanting to make any purchases from Cameraquest. I logged onto the site to check the price and saw the huge hike earlier today. That, with the ridiculous hike in the 50 1.5 over the last while... and the 28 3.5 etc has made me regard that retailer as, well, cynical and unethical. Do B&H or any other store you know hike their prices through the roof before a lens is discontinued? No.
I think ethics come into play here. Cameraquest is an importer as well as retailer and seem to be hellbent on controlling prices and supply. You can be sure he buys in the stock at the same price, clears out the factory, then hikes prices incrementally until they are almost (or actually) double their original price.
If there is another explanation as to why only particular lenses (and the ones being discontinued from what I see) I would be interested to know. I had held off from buying from that site before, because every time i wanted a lens I found the price had gone up substantially. Now, finally decided/financed to buy a 35 1.2, it has just gone up 33%!
Is it just me, or does this leave a bad taste in your mouth also?