That's why you have waiting lists in many luxury industries (think about Tesla too). It's part of the trade.
My comment was not advocating for 'maximizing profit' - secondary markets do not make for happy customers, nor do excessively long wait times. Yes - a waiting list can be part of a luxury good, but there's probably an optimization of customer happiness somewhere shorter than a 2 year wait list.
A wait list that excessive can spur a secondary market, which makes the wit list even longer, which makes customers and potential customers that much less happy. And the secondary market only enriches the middle-man, while doing nothing for your loyal fans and customers.
Especially for luxury items, it makes sense to keep the price pretty high and supply limited (like Ferrari).
I am from India and $150 is pretty low for the market he is targetting. For example I routinely purchases Moleskin notebooks for around $30 in India and this was not even a rare item. A doctor, a judge can easily afford to pay $500 for these pens.
Do you use fountain pens? Moleskin notebooks are amongst the worst paper I have ever used for a fountain pen. Even the finest points I have bleed an absurd amount.