Regular bulbs are certainly over priced. The package costs more than the bulb (Dinges). The 12V bulb costs about the same as a AC bulb? So why $7 for a bulb that costs them the same as another bulb that retails for 25 cents?
LED bulbs are not over priced, at least good ones.
Legal sailboat bulbs are a poor example, because of the testing and certification they must go through. That's why you won't find any after-market DOT approved LED replacement bulbs. And the crazy laws is what drove all the aftermarket HID makers under in about a 10 minute time span (Catz comes to mind).
Making you own LED bulb is easy. Good LEDs are not cheap. Cheap LEDs are not good.
An LED bulb that sells for $20 now, is better than the $100 LED bulbs were just a couple years ago.
Even if the parts were free, labor costs, shipping 5 times, packaging...
Then a profit for the factory, the distributors, the wholesalers, the retailers...
What $20 can buy now is amazing to me, even if the LEDs aren't so great.
G-
