Costs in all of these high desired western states is just going to continue to rise, and I mean REALLY RISE! I don"t like it any more than the rest of you. But if I was going to have someone sell my car for me, I would want them to get as much as they could and what the car can bring. No different for out of state tags. The owners of the animals are the citizens of the state. I would imagine that they want the best bang for their buck. If a certain price non-resident tag has hundreds/thousands of applicants more than there is quota, the simple fact is that they are selling it way to cheap. As long as they sell all of their tags, the price will keep skyrocketing until supply meets demand at the highest cost possible. If you owned all of the tags, you would do the same. It's nothing more than simple business. The only decent price tags anyone will be eligible for (and have the right too) will be the ones in the state where they live. If you CHOOSE to live in a state that sucks for hunting (Washington State) then you better have a very big pocket-book if you want to participate in any kind of quality hunting experience in the future. Like I said, I don't like it either. The states are feeding off of each other. They each see what the other state has done and how they increased revenue and then they just follow. It's going to blow up exponentially in the near future. Out of state hunting will soon be a sport for only the rich and wealthy. Your option will be to pay up or move to the state of your choice that gives you the best options.