The other day I went into my LBS of choice and bought a freewheel removal tool, because I'd lost mine.
I was throwing them a bone by buying it there. Trying to be a good guy and patronize the local business. Yeah they charged me $21 when I could have gotten it for $8 on Amazon, but whatever. That is not a lot of money for me right now.
I wonder if they appreciated the gesture, or if they thought "Look at that dumbass, paying $21 for an FR-8"?
Probably the latter.
I feel ya. Recently I went to buy some Chris King hubs at an lbs. The shop is really nice and sometimes has random stuff I need so i figured I would give them a shot and see what they charge.
"We sure can get the hubs in for you. Regular retail is: $328 for the front, and $779 for the rear hub. We can give you a bit of a break on them and do them for $287 and $681 respectively."
So I ended up getting a pair for 450+shipping on ebay. I may end up going there to get them built up but if I were to pay retail for the hubs + rims/spokes/tires/tubes I could buy any number of sick bikes for that.
Scrod I thought your post was funny!