I was 20 when BW came out, but my overly-simplistic memory wants to say that Basics were $5 USD. Deluxe were $10, Mega were $15, and Ultra were $20, and it stayed that way from 1996 at least through 1999 (The last 2 I got were TM2 Megatron and Tigerhawk).
Optimal Optimus being the one "bigger" toy in that line costing $30 USD.
So 25 years later, Cheetor Doubling in Price is not surprising, but Rattrap going 4X is just highway robbery. The Ultra's could have been sold for double the original price at $40 (there's a LOT of empty space in that packaging), but I think they wanted to try to align it closer to Modern Generations leader Price Point of $50.
So, based on my memory of my original BW Collection I had:
1996 Tigatron (was gifted to me by a friend)
1997 Magnaboss & Tripredacus (Spent $40)
1998 TM Optimus and Megatron (Spent $30), Depth Charge and Rampage (Spent $40), and Optimal Optimus (Spent $30)
1999 TM 2 Megatron and Tigerhawk (Spent $40) TM2 Dinobot (spent $10) and
*Optimus Minor was gifted to me by some friends' kids'. I was indoctrinating them into TF's since I wasn't married yet or had kids of my own. Could they have picked a worse toy
. Of course I never said anything and gladly accepted it.
So basically all-in-all from 1996 to 1999 I spent just under $200 ($190) on my entire standard BW Collection! (I say standard because I was starting to go to Conventions and was heavily getting back into Original Transformers, I got some convention exclusives and was getting several BW II and Neo toys) Of course I was going to college part-time and had a job that paid less than $7 USD an hour, until 1999 until I Got into the banking industry and started making a whopping $11 dollars an hour.
Bucket/Want List: Botcon 2016 Customization Class Ratchet (G2 Deco), or Customization Class Ratchet (Marvel Comics Deco) **would also be willing to pay for an Unpainted Botcon 2016 Ratchet, TT Legends Fortress Head (only) with working Electronics
Wish List of Modern Combiners: Road Caesar, Monstructor & Dinoking (proper size to fiction), Landcross, Guard City, Battle Gaia, & G2 Defensor. Wish List of Titans:Metrotitan,Majin Zarak