I always figured that most framebuilders are under-priced. The reason is simple. There is a business rule of thumb that says that a manufacturer should sell a good for 5 times the material cost or they are going to suffer insufficient margins and will be "lucky" to stay in business. I think Dave Kirk underestimates the materials costs, but using his numbers that means that custom frames should cost at least $3500. It would not be hard at all to spend over $1000 with a high-end wet paint job and that means the price should be $5k, which very few builders actually charge. What you find is that there are very few people actually working at it full time and that means their day job and their wife is subsidizing the business. But the guys that are charging significantly less than that are either really efficient or they are living on the edge. And there is a significant turnover in the business, which I believe reflects that.