Based on what you've said, LRG isn't about making money, or about making their customers happy. It's about existing for the sake of continuing to exist. That really is a unique business model.
In more practical terms to ensure not overproducing a print run, the best way would be to set up a preorder type system. Orders are left open for a limited time, and the number of paid orders they get would dictate the size of the print run they make. The way it's set up now there's still more of a risk of potentially overproducing copies. Even limiting the collector's version to a small number while not strictly limiting the regular version would make more sense. But that's not the best way of artificially inflating value and demand now is it.