I do not think we are being "ripped off" by the price of quilting gadgets. How many rulers do you think Ace hardware sells? They have to be in the hundreds of thousands of units. How many rulers do you think Eleanor Burns sells? Less than a thousand? Ace and Harbor freight buy goods from China by the Shipping container. Their shipping costs per ruler are miniscule compared to what Eleanor Burns pays for shipping cost per ruler.
It's a matter of scale. How many more people will buy a suction cup from Ace than from Eleanor Burns or Marti Mitchell, or Kaye Woods or any of the others? There are a lot more tile workers and DIY homeowners than there are quilters.
I happen to have a 6 1/5 inch square up ruler by Marti Mitchell that I love. I use it all the time. It's $12.30 on Amazon. (I bought it at an estate sale.) It's a pretty high priced piece of plastic. But how many people need a ruler like this? I would think no one, unless you are a quilter - and there aren't that many of us quilters out there.
In the conclusion to my soap box rant, I encourage everyone to buy their quilting gadgets where ever they are the least expensive and share that with everyone. However, we need to understand that no one cannot manufacture and ship a specialty product for the same amount of money they can manufacture a mass merchandise product.
bkay