So true.. I found the price of work stands so outrageous, it discouraged me from considering working on my bike.. Especially , when I have a trusted and comparatively inexpensive wrench to work on my bike.. These stands are likely made in China for a pittance..
Do a little searching , quite some time back a p/r thread told of how some individual made his own work stand out of steel pipes threaded together in a pattern similar to most work stands sold for hundreds of dollars.. Photos of it made it look quite stable.