Actually, record is well regarded, but maybe not enough beginners know much about it. When record was still being sold new and the planes really didn't match the older records, people were still buying them here at a much higher price than a used stanley.
There aren't that many record planes on the ground here in the states, and ebay's seizing of anything with brown wood through the GSP probably hurts their ability to be bought here (that and for a long time, you could get a good stanley 4 or 5 for $40, which made paying $40 just for shipping from England not so great).