Mel, in NY- they have boiled crabs (Like Lobster), not steamed.
Makes the meat watery & mushy.
Steaming the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab (yes, the claws are a bright blue before steaming) is a specialty thing indigenous to MD/Va.
(Also, the spicings are kept easch chef's secret.)
The best crab-cakes are made with Blue Backfin Lump meat.
Price has to do with availability- time of year, rain (water salinity), and harvest yield.
Its a labor intensive job, not dangerous like the Alaskan King Crab harvest, but still - cost of gas for boats, waterman's wages, etc.
At home, we get them from a family that goes out crabbin' in the a.m. and opens up the carry-out, steamed-crab-store in the afternoon, with that morning's catch.
Ya gotta come here to get the real thing - or import them, iced down after cooking, from here. But they're best hot, right out of the steam-pot.
And you just eat the meat out of the shells.
Pickin' crabs is an art form and a skill.... and arguments as to best technique always are heard around the picnic table, covered with newspaper, crabs, bowls of vinegar (for dippin'), beer, & paper towels.

Steamed crabs, corn on the cob, and 'Natty Boh'
(National Bohemian- used to be brewed, right here here in Balto), beer.
Made for steamed crabs, just the perfect compliment. (and quite inexpensive) Budweiser just don't make the grade.

In years past, we would get a bushel or two .... alive, steam them ourselves.... a keg of beer, a coupla bushels of corn, Md beefsteak tomatoes, grill dogs & burgers, and have a family, summer get-together at someone's home & big back yard.

Haven't put a get-together .... together - in a coupla years. Mebbe have one this summer. Late in the crab harvest season when they're plentiful, and not as expensive. Late Aug to mid Sept is a good time, usually. Labor day is more expensive cause they're in such demand - they can charge whatever the traffic will bear, but just after - prices are reasonable. A bushel is about 13 dozen, if I remember correctly.
Used to get live crabs cheaper than already steamed, about $75 a bushel for mediums. Dunno what the current prices are, could be double that, now.
But reasonable for steamed, ready to be picked & eaten, is $25 for smalls, $35-40 for heavy mediums, $55-60 for large, & upwards $$ for jumbo double "A's" (1 to 2 lbs apiece)- if you can get them.
Crab dissertation over. I'm making myself hungry