it's because they stopped making surfcasters a few years ago hehe
i also never finance anything, especially not guitars. i'd rather save up over a few months or year or whatever and using that time to do research / check other models etc and make sure i'm getting exactly what i want. it's really easy to get trapped in huge debt when you're financing stuff without having to start paying right away. i'd much rather pay cash and own the product 100% outright as soon as i walk out of the store instead of having the guitar in my hands and the cost hanging over me.
at this point i've been eyeballing those surfcasters since last fall hehe. i saw an ibanez talman at a local pawn shop that was remarkably similar, even had the semi-hollow body action but i just couldn't drop the cash at the time (kind of need a job before another guitar...)