Picking out some clipless pedals for my son's new road bike and thought these were probably sweet spot for price/performance? Any thoughts?

Also.. price shopping there are huge differences out there. Is there a lot of counterfeit stuff? It looks like MSRP is $180 which the big online bike stores are selling for.
Amazon though has a number of sellers selling at sub $130, eg. Amzn 105 R7000
and on Ebay, they're much lower still? https://www.ebay.com/itm/365834098380

What gives? How much risk with not going with the mainstream official bike shop purchase?

How old is he? Would it be better to run SPD\Time\Crankbrother type things first to get used to clipless versus going headfirst into road pedals?

Mid-20s. He's decided to start road biking to complement his running and eventually someday doing a Tri or two. He'll start with the bike on a trainer for a bit though. I could look at the Wahoo Speedplay Comps though.. I'm still running some old X-series. However, they don't come up much in conversation anymore -- but seem to have decent reviews.

MSRP is $175 which seems expensive for 105 pedals. Only $102 from a legit source if you can wait: Shimano 105 PD-R7000 SPD-SL Pedals Excel Sports | Shop Online From Boulder Colorado

But if you cannot, buy the Ultegra version for less: Shimano Ultegra PD-R8000 SPD-SL Pedals Excel Sports | Shop Online From Boulder Colorado

I have bought many items from Excel Sports before. I use Ultegra pedals because I need the + 4 mm longer spindles.

You can get Look Keos (which I prefer) for a lot less.

"Look'ing at those too.. Max or Classic? or, how do you determine which might be best without trying them all out?

Classic are fine. Max are slightly lighter but not worth the price bump imho. Blade are very good if you want an upgrade in the future.

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From what I can tell, one of the key things you differentiators with Look as you go up in price, is the platform size gets larger and larger.
The Max platform size is 25% larger than the Classic. The Blade is in turn somehow 40% larger than the Max. It maybe doesn't mean much despite sounding significant -- if a pedal platform was rectangular, the Classic would be about 7mm x 60mm, the Max about 8 x 60mm, and the Blade about 9 x 67mm

I switched over from SPD-SL to Speedplays. Couldn't be happier. Much easier to clip into, IMHO.

I just did the same for much the same reason. Haven't ridden with 'em much yet, and walking in the Shimano shows I have 'em fastened onto takes some real patience and attention! My big gripe is how 'tall' the stack is and it's narrow so your balance is tenuous... or I'm doing something wrong. Mine are the COMP series, ~ US $130 not counting delivery charge.

Tried a pair of CrankBros (candy 2's) between the SPD-SL's & these new Whahoo pedals too. They work but take some getting used to, maybe some significant number of miles ridden before they're easy to get in/out of?

Oh! Never noticed this. I use classics, max and blades (and favero assioma power pedals) and they all feel very similar. Maybe the carbon soles negate the effect of a smaller platform.

I’ll be looking for this now though!