Why do better MC cartridges cost a fortune?

They charge and we gladly pay? And you have to retip or replace it soon enough. Most of them come from Japan. They sure know how to do business, don’t they?

No, the manufacturer is the poor one.
The real winners are those in the following distributor chain and when we go down to the core... your "enemy" is the audiophile next to you who wants to spend more :-)
Supported by deaf reviewers ....

Syntax, you are right too, but I didn't want to go into this openly, though indirectly I did. 'Audiophile class warfare' is something that we should try and avoid. Yes, if at least half of all audiophiles everywhere stop paying these insane amounts for the cartridges, things would probably get better for most. As for the distributors, that's another interesting story, and it goes far beyond audio and the US. Even French farmers suffer not to mention African miners.
Deaf reviewers... I don't have an impression that most of them are deaf, but if they say everything they really think their livelihood will almost certainly get very insecure. Do you meet many people who are ready for that?

@syntax -so nice to see you here. Been a while. I hope you are still having fun. I am! regards,
bill

Hello Whart,
thank you very much :-), yes, all is fine.
Inna,
yes I did. After all those years all I can say is, when I look for something for myself, before I would ask a dealer (or even worse, a distributor) I would walk into a forest to ask a tree .... a much more useful conversation I will have ...
But back to the question about cartridges
You can buy nearly everything from OEM, the only exception is a special made body or diamond cantilever. All other parts are dirt cheap. The main difference is in the amount of coils, what kind of magnets are used and (very important) what kind of diamond is chosen.
The diamonds are also cheap but no manufacturer chooses the best one.
Why should he shorten his profit and when he does, he can not go for an upgraded (higher priced) model.
This game has its own rules. It is not enough when the discriminated Audiophile offers his money to get something serious, no, he still gets something average (with some very, very few exceptions). But in a nice box, wrapped with a great review :-)
Most will never get it because analog reproduction is a chain.... with Arm, cable, energy transfer from cartridge, phono stage and so on .... that is the reason why you will get so many different answers from owners...some write something negative and others rave it... 

Does anyone make custom cartridges with the best god damn coils, magnets and diamonds? Brazilian Rosewood cartridge body, please. No, not Indian, not Honduran - Brazilian. I don't want no stones, corals, plastic, metal etc. Wood only for me.
Nice box, great reviews, herd instinct, Japanese mistique - right.