You disagree because you are uneducated. Local dive shops can not compete with online sellers dollar for dollar. Not because they don`t want to, but because the playing field is not level. Local dive shops buy goods direct from manufacturers with full factory warranties that they pass on to you. manufacturers do two things that hurt local dive shops and their ability to compete. 1. They charge the LDS way too much money for their goods and 2. After they charge too much money, they tell the LDS what they have to advertise the goods for if they want to keep their dealership. I call it price fixing and as a LDS owner I`m in the process of fighting it to help save the diving industry. When an online dealer such as Leisurepro buys grey market goods from a third party seller at below wholesale (what a LDS pays) and sells it to you at what the LDS owner has to pay for it... the LDS owner can not compete. Don`t be mad at your LDS owner for their pricing - be mad at the manufacturers who are dictating to LDS owners what they must list items for. Here is an example. I must pay Cressi sub $178 for a BCD... that is my cost as an authorized dealer. They tell me I can not advertise it for less than $399 or else I lose my dealership. Meanwhile, Leisurepro has obtained these BCD`s from a backroom deal somwehere and is selling them for $199. For me to compete I have to be able to 1. Bring customers to my store by advertising a competitive price (which I can`t do without violating manufacturers rules,) and 2. Sell the item at enough profit margin to pay rent, electric bills, employees and put food on the table. If I match leisurepro`s price... I make $21 on the item. In this scenario, a shop owner like myself says I need 20% above Leisurepro price or $238 to keep my store open, give you a full manufacturers warranty, be there to fill your air, offer travel opportunities and the benefit of giving you a place to get those items you don`t want to pay shipping on. Keep in mind, I was a customer for 12 years before I opened a shop... so I don`t take this lightly and neither should you. I agree that many LDS`s are gouging customers in an insane way. Charging far more than they should... but many of them are uneducated LDS owners who blindly believe in the price fixing scheme set up by the Scuba Mafia. They are told by fixing prices it levels the playing field... which it does do. The problem is is levels the playing field among LDS owners and does nothing to address grey market internet sales. If manufacturers continue to fix pricing and refuse to let LDS owners compete... all LDS`s will eventually be gone the way of the dinosaur. The internet isn`t going away anytime soon.