I'm surprised at that, as when I used to take apart my hubs more often, I used new bearings from the packages of bike bearings that I bought from Bike Nashbar for a paper sac of 50 or a 100 for I dont remember, maybe $10 or less for each sac of 100--my hubs have stayed in quite good shape with these ones, and I cant imagine wheel bearings at $5 each...but correct me if I am wrong. Just seems like a lot....