I think if you put it into perspective, prices are not that high. In 1968 I started buying gear - $50 for boots, $50+ for a Kelty Pack, made my own sleeping bag with a FrostLine kit - still in the $50 range. Now if you were to index this to inflation, what we have available now is much cheaper - because it is all made in China! Clothing has relatively gone down in price since the 1960's. We have become addicted to cheap goods, and lots of them. Used to be that when you bought a jacket, you kept it and patched it until it was threadbare. Now we are used to something new every other year. Toss it out because it is not the newest color. I think we are hypocrits - we want our gear to be dirt cheap, but our own wages and benefits to put us in the upper middle class, so we can go out and buy too much gear. We want to live like kings and have the poor sucker who sews our jacket live in a tin shack.

Prioritize the gear you need. Be willing to pay a premium for lighter weight - may not be important for the young and strong, but for aging backpackers, the light gear is a godsend. Pay a good price for the important stuff. Buy the less important stuff at K-Mart or whatever. I for one will still support my local specialty shop for critical items. If I do not, they will soon be out of business. Yes, when I see a sale, I buy. But I do not expect to put the poor dealer out of business. If the item is on sale, he has probably already made his profits on previous sales. If everyone were to wait for the sale, there would be no sale!

But I think what is important to note, is that if you really want to go backpacking - you can almost gear yourself up from Goodwill or army surplus or second hand shops. Get out and get going - then prioritize what you want in improvements, save pennies and add a new piece of gear every year.