I think they brought them out because they have probably seen the interest on the old sets by collectors by watching Ebay maybe.
They do seem to go for less on Ebay at present but that was not the case when I first bought a set, my first set cost me £55+ on Ebay and many other sets were selling for a similar price, its only recently they have lost that value, maybe all the serious collectors have a set now I don't really know the reason the price dropped, or could also be that more and more sets come up for sale?