Good question, Guest. Never fear. This week I saw a flier for a big box home living store, advertising a sale on glass tiles. Glass tiles are hitting the mainstream, which will no doubt bring prices down. But your question is proabably why are they – so far – pretty expensive? I guess the manufacturing process of some glass tiles does involve some tricky technical issues such as stringent annealing requirements, so glass tile may always be priced above say glazed bisques. That’s part of the story. Their modern variants are also new, and as such are something of a luxury item, which tends to push the price up. As for innovative glass tile designs – these are inevitably priced high, as innovation and marketing new styles is where the risk is, and the higher price is maintained by copyright protection. After a few years though we see these new styles becoming the established ones, and a starting point, conscious or otherwise, for creative designers. At that point, the public is willing to pay less for the styles that have become old hat. At least that’s my reading of the glass tile market and Kensian economics…_________________