That's Arena.NET. They did the same with GW1 - heck, check current prices for GW1.... 15 bucks for base game as well as for each expansion, with Guild Wars Trilogy for 30 bucks being the best deal.

I wouldn't expect GW2 to drop below 40 bucks this year....

... I'm pretty sure a lot of the legendarys were bought together with real life money. :)

A lot of them got it through market manipulation, actually, I believe. Sure, there are definitely those that bought it with real life money, but there are folks sitting at 7K gold and they're only getting richer because they can manipulate the market. Then there are those that got it when precursors were less than 100g. The current economy in gw2 is pretty screwed up for precursors atm, really, and anet is sitting on their bums doing nothing about it - and they probably won't want to, since it encourages people to spend money on gems for those desperate for a few glowy pixels.

Ok, I have deadlines coming up but I am so making time for this

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/31/your-guide-to-guild-wars-2s-super-adventure-box/

more information there