Michael, I also used to be in the paint business in the mid to late 1980's when I managed one of The Porter Paint Co.'s corporate owned stores in Wichita Kansas. FWIW, at that time my store had the distinction of being the farthest west store of all the Porter stores in the US. Porter's paint was always right up there with Benny Moore in price and quality but I was so used to selling to wholesale painters that the retail prices always kind of shocked me.
About 21 years ago, my wife and I painted our first house using Porter's top line 100% acrylic paint. I drive by that old house every once in a while and up until just a couple of years ago, the paint we put on was still there. $52 for a gallon of paint probably sounds really high to a lot of people but as I'm sure you know, when it comes to paint you get what you pay for, or it used to be that way.
Cheers,
Bill