Good way to look at it KapaHn8d! Whenever I ordered my gratings from DL I also had ordered a laser. Actually for the crappy plastic ones out there , 30 dollars for a quality product is not bad. If you want to get high quality results you pay for it. If you order two gratings it will knock your shipping cost per unit in half. Where I work if customers order one or two traffic cones for say 12 dollars a piece and we ship it from NJ to Florida, or anywhere more than 500 miles, it will cost 50 dollars(or more)to ship a 12 or 24 dollar order. They can go to Home Depot and buy an inferior product but they don't. I see this everyday where the shipping costs more than the actual product. This is a reality when dealing with shipping a small order. Even though DL is shipping a very small piece of glass, it is coming fron China. 18 dollars actually doesn't sound that bad to ship a small box from China. You can check out Laserglow's diffraction gratings from Canada and 60 dollars for a piece if glass maybe a third of an inch in diameter (which I have), or get more exotic and pay hundreds of dollars from Melles Groit. The DL ones, even with the shipping cost making it 30 dollars a pop is the the best quality and value in my opinion.