The high price isn't too astounding. The 78 rpm vinyl disk was obsolete when the laser was invented, so these players would be essentially custom made. I saw the world's second laser (Bell Labs) in operation in 1960 when Bell Labs brougth their's to Princeton University, where I was at the time (The first was Maiman's in California, a week or so earlier, but I was in New Jersey at the time).

To the best of my knowledge the laser (continuous, not pulsed as the original ruby lasers were) was first used for recording and playback of music by my high school friend Jim [James Torrance] Russell on a new device he called a Compact Disc in 1965. He was at the Hanford atomic works, adminstered by Battelle Institute by that time). [He retired last ear, according to the Christmas card I got from him and his wife Barbara last December. I went to junior high school with Barbara). Jim told me (I think it was in 1958) that even the best elliptical diamond needles had a deleterious effect on the grooves of a conventional vinyl recording.