Last week whilst on vacation I visited "The Compleat Strategist" an old school wargame hobby shop in the greater Philadelphia area. They had several games on the shelves that I was prepared to buy on the spot until I flipped over the box to look at the price tag. I was stunned.
A game like "Empire of the Sun" which retailed at about $80 back in 2019 at this shop now sells for $110? Has the price of store bought wargames increased that much in your neck of the woods?
I can buy 2 or more computer games for that much money! I check the price of GMTs games directly on their website and noticed that games have gotten more pricey there too.
I think prices have edged up some since the pandemic...but not as much as my local Wendy's or Taco Bell...

Most new games are $50 - $80 dollars, and I think this is mostly consistent with 2019 prices. A few publishers like OSG and Compass regularly have prices on some games around $100 - $120, but they had those prices in 2019 as well.
At my local game store, prices are at the manufacturer's suggested retail or about 20% above the average ebay price. This is actually OK with me, since I like to support the local business. But I still find myself buying mostly online.
Overall, GMT games are still a good deal IMHO. I recently bought GMT's Storm Above the Reich for $60 on ebay. It is a huge, hefty game, with great components and I think it is a very good deal.
But the key to prices is supply and demand. That same $60 "Storm Above the Reich," will probably be sold out and then go for $110 in six months...until there is a reprint anyway.
So in the case of "Empire of the Sun," it is a popular game, that is almost continually out of stock. The next print run won't put them back on shelves for at least another six months. At that point you'll pay about $50 for it. But until then, the $100+ is purely market driven. If lower cost is important, buying right after a print run is the path to happiness.
When today's prices are more than I want to pay...I sometimes look at older games on ebay, or even Board Game Geek. I have found some good deals there. Since AH was so prolific with their print runs, even 40 year old AH games are pretty cheap sometimes. I found a good used 3rd Edition "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" for $25 for example.