Simply put, we price based on our cost to craft. The "general market" as you put it, is based solely on auction prices (which 99% of the time) will be lower as people sell there for fast turn over and buy for the lowest price they can.....and we are not prepared to craft and sell at a loss. The point of SFE's operational setup is to be sustainable (i.e. it pays for its own continued operation) so we (Tim and I) don't need to tip tons of our own RL money into it to keep it going.....it's why we are still around after nearly 9 years.We do a monthly review, based directly on the market prices of materials and a formula we have developed over years of recording crafting results, to come up with our prices each month. We may not always be the cheapest (and we encourage our customers to do their research before buying) but 9 times out of 10 we will have the stock when you need it. Its not just about having the best price, its also about reliability and convenience for the customer as well.....a cheap price is no good if you can't get the item you want. Would you rather hang around auction for hours or days hoping to grab that piece of armour for the cheapest you can, or grab it from us for a bit extra and be back out hunting or whatever in the shortest possible time?