The television series is certainly as popular as ever; I'm not sure who told you the last few seasons were bad. This is not reflected in the ratings. The season premiere has now passed 30 million viewers (over 16 million watched it live) and the show is being televised in 186 countries and territories around the world. There's just so many fans out there (television series and books) that I don't see the price coming down for many years, if at all. You also need to factor in that the young folks who read it when it first came out in 1996 are all grown up now, some are earning real paychecks, and they're feeling nostalgic; this tends to drive the price up.