Fuck anyone that gouges like that.

I'll be honest, I've order a few sensors from Sparkfun back in the day. But that was before the electronics explosion that's taking place. I can get the same stuff from multiple sources for lower cost now.

I've even ordered a couple of Fadecandy from Adafruit just to test it out because I'm in the business of LEDs and I like to know what the competition is doing (and I can say from experience that fadecandy is unreliable overpriced junk).

But beyond LEDs, no I don't need anything Sparkfun or Adafruit are offering. I get it cheaper, and I can get a dozen of them for the same price and in most cases use a generic breakout board for surface mount parts before they get on my breadboard. And most of the same stuff is on eBay and Amazon with chips with breakout boards, ready for breadboarding, practically the same thing as adafruit is selling for a fraction of the price.

Here's a few price difference examples:

$14.95 Adafruit - 6 wire slip ring

$10.29 Amazon - 6 wire slip ring

$4.54 w/shipping eBay/China - 6 wire slip ring

$39.95 Adafruit - MTK3339 GPS breakout board

$22.49 eBay - MTK3339 GPS breakout board

$19.95 Adafruit - BME280 breakout board

$5.59 Amazon - BME280 breakout board

$3.52 eBay/china - BME280 breakout board

I could go on and on - Most things Adafruit can't complete on price, or competes badly. Some things Adafruit is competitive on, some things they are slightly cheaper - but there's still their ridiculous shipping charges to pile on to your bill.

And with a little social engineering so many things can be had totally free, if someone doesn't have a budget at all.