Recently on Board Game Geek someone asked about the collector edition of one of my favorite games: Takenoko. Someone from the game company provide an official answer, which was fun to read.
Actually the original idea was just to make a limited series hand made and assembled for conventions (Tiles were produced internally and we just got the wooden pieces made in a factory, the Panda and Gardener were plastic toys). We used it and people were asking for a chance to buy the game. We then produced a few hundred thanks to Asmodee North America who offered them to their best retaillers [sic] (as far as I understand that right), the leftover couple hundred were meant to be sold at Essen and they did. When we thought about reprinting we could not see the market and after months of considerations going nowhere, we finally got help via Collector’s shelf crowdfunding.
Read the original question (and subsequent discussion) on BoardGameGeek.com.
I participated in the recent KickStarter campaign where they reissued the collector edition once again. I did not buy it (I thought about it!) simply because it would take so much shelf space, and it would not be very portable. I did buy the lower tier option which came with a wooden insert for the regular game and a beautiful play mat.