[davepl]

A good portion of the cost is prep, making sure the surface is flawless (which it certainly doesn't start out as), and so on. As pieces that didn't start out as chromed, they would need to be extensively polished lest you wind up with the surface texture of a bare steel mirror part.

And the environmental costs of running a plating shop are getting crazy as well.

I looked around at motorcycle shops and things like alternator covers, trans cover, and so on are all in the $100-$200 per piece range. So yeah, it's expensive as hell.

Whether I got taken advantage of I have no idea, but I do know they do great work.