I'm not old enough to say, "I remember when..." but I do remember buying Win 94's and Marlin 1894's for $300-400 new off of the rack. I bought a pair of Win 94 Trappers in 357mag and 30-30 for $296 each at one point, and I remember buying an 1895 for $410... I also remember my dad at the time saying he thought those prices were crazy, as he paid less than $200 for his 1894's 30yrs prior... His was a long time ago, mine wasn't THAT long ago.
The sad part - it's becoming a self-fulfilling, downward spiral for leverguns. 20yrs ago, they weren't terribly expensive, so guys might buy one on a whim, whether for economy, nostalgia, or if nothing else, to have something different yet sufficient for their short range hunting. Today, a guy really has to want one, the choice between a bolt gun and a levergun for hunting is purely emotional. The Win 94 went down, Marlin went down, Henry and Rossi reaped the rewards of lacking competition for a while now, but what's it going to look like in another decade or two?
I guess it's good to see Marlin trying to bring a more modernized feature set to the modern firearms buyer, but my memory is long enough to remember how well that went with the Marlin Express cartridges, and the tacticool leverguns... When a 700 ADL or Axis can be bought for $350 in flatter shooting rounds, the pistol carbine leverguns just don't stand a chance with future hunters, and as the cowboy action shooting sport is dying out, I think that niche market will also dry up very soon too. A saving grace might be the liberal states which ban semi-autos, but guys have figured out already a tube fed levergun isn't as handy as a DBM bolt gun, so I think that pond is getting shallow too. Threading the pistol carbine 1894's might make sense for some folks, but I don't know THAT many guys who want a levergun at all, and the market reach of a suppressor-ready version doesn't seem to be THAT much more broad...? I'm stocking up on 1894's and 1895's while they're still in production, 'cuz I think this ride is about over...