At the height of the economic boom in Ireland,around 2005-2006, some traditional music   CDs were sold for as much as €23 while the average lay around €20. At the moment I think (haven't bought many CDs recently) prices are in the €15-18 region, depending on the typoe of outlet.

Most traditional CDs are self-produced ones. Which means the people recording put up the money, make the effort and sell/market them themselves. The '1.50 to produce' certainly doesn't cover the outlay for studio, graphic design, the cost of freebies for broadcast/review, (and optional advertising and marketing), website etc.

Distributors will pay you €7 if they take any off you, usually in batches of (multiples of) 25, the cost of getting the CDs to them is yours to shoulder. The US distributors I have dealt with will pay even less, again handing over the burden of getting the material to them to the seller. After one of two batches I decided it was not worth dealing with the US crowd. Some shops will pay more, some specialised shops are very fair (€12 for a CD they sell at €20) some slightly less so. Disadvantage is the majority of shops in Ireland will only deal on sale or return basis and you'll have to check up on them to see if they have sold your CD, they will certainly not send you a cheque when they sell out.

That al said and done, I have no problem buying CDs at the current rate of €15-18 when the music interests me.