I am not sure the tents are over-priced. I have tried to make one myself. The fellow who makes the tent has overhead, investments and pays workers. I am not sure I like the idea that a cheap tent I buy is made by slave labor in China. The last time I went to a discount fabric store I paid 4.99 per yard for low-tech rip stop nylon. The last time I tried to design and sew a tent it took me over a week and it turned out horrible! Yeh, they probably spend $50 making the $200 tent with high volume manufacturing. But the point is, if I were to try to make one myself, and valued my labor at a minimum of $10 per hour, I would still have a $200 tent- probably more. And probably thousands of people have used the manufactured tent and it has refined its design over the years and is a better tent for that.

What else can I buy for $200? One week's groceries for a family. Two college textbooks. One leather purse. One evening dress. One pair of designer shoes. A bookcase. 50 gallons of gas. 70 gallons of milk. Half a year garbage pick-up. 2 hours of help from a computer expert when I kill my computer. And although I do not get paid all this, under 2 hours of work that I do for clients. It is all a matter of perspective.