Hi Vince,
Yes LOL is about as correct as it comes at that kind of price, the thing we are all having to deal with now is "Vintage" pricing.. $10 for one connector is crazy especially when one would like to build say a 20 slotter.. back when these systems were popular im sure the prices were comparatively cheaper.. or to say you can get the same CPU for now vs what you could back then for a fraction of the price.. to be honest who really wants to build such an expensive backplane if your not going to use the other 12 slots? most people are happy with 5-8 slots.. like the S-100 board by John available (or atleast set in design and awaiting popular demand) unfortunately i dont have a source of connectors, the offer was just put out there as a run of boards is going to happen and not of amny because of the reasons you have poined out above. if i did have a cheap source that would be a different story.. but yes when you add 18 connectors @ $10ea, and $80 bare board, and $20 worth of components.. your looking at the best part for (todays money) $300... which is a heck of allot for a backplane which doesnt do allot but look cool in the bottom of the box. or one could just populate it with a few connectors for now and then add more as time goes on.. or just get a smaller board.. guess thats the beauty of making the system your "own".