Well, the price will deffinetly come down, the MVS is not a collectors market (although there are some MVS collectors here). As a result, as soon as the game is no longer doing well in the arcades, it will be droped and flood the local sites. KOF2K actually came out with a higher price tag then KOF2K1, and 2K is now resting just above $150 and will probably dip below $100 this summer. By this time next year 2K1 will surely follow suite. Now a year maybe a long time to wait, but as you said, buying it now is pissing away $800+. Neo Geo buying is a waiting game... we have come accustom to holding out for good deals, or spending bank on a cart that may or may not be worth the cash. There really is no reason to splurge on Neo carts, it is inevitable that they will drop in price, and a Marquee title like KOF2K1 did not get a small production run (plus there is a home cart, so more MVS carts will be floating around since collectors prefer the home/won't be converted into home either etc, etc).
-Nick