I once saw a letter (1950 or 1952) from Alex Singer to a client/rider on his team suggesting the brand-new pedals by TA as potential equipment for his new randonneur bike. Compared to the then-standard Lyotards, they featured a roller bearing on the inboard side, a cartridge ball bearing outboard, and were considered absolutely mindboggling in their design, execution and quality. Mindboggling, too, was the cost, at about 20% or so of the cost of a complete Alex Singer randonneur. So few were sold, and that is why they are so rare.
How they managed to get the price down to the current $ 130-150 is another question... Or maybe all other parts have gone up. The current TA pedals are mechanically the same, I believe, but they do look different.
Jan Heine, Seattle