I think a good part of that $13 (which was the unit price if I ordered 25)
was for something machined all over, nice and shiny and bright and within
a gnat's eyelash of the nominal diameter all over.

Looks like that shop charges $300 for setup and cleanup. Then a dollar a
part. If you use cold rolled stock instead of ground you could have saved
$10. bet they didn't even look at that. "The Kid" was an estimator for a
while. for a small new potential customer don't spend but a second doing the
quote. 90% aren't serious.

Karl