I hear ya. At my local feed store, $100 could plant enough for a small town to eat. She charges $0.60 for a good-sized scoop of seeds (equal to several packets). She only charges $3.50/lb. for most of her pea, bean, turnip, etc. seed.
Some of these catalogs I have want $5-10 for a packet of 20 seeds.
Last year I paid $240 for a 25 lb. bag of sweet corn seed, but a 50 lb. bag of purple hull pea seed was only $85. I order these things through our farm seed distributor and put any leftovers in a freezer.
I’m making sure I’ve got enough back for a few years in case SHTF. Can’t believe how seeds have gone up the last decade or so. All my old bulk places have went out of business, though still got a couple with good deals. My other problem is the varieties I want always seem to be the most expensive. I’ve gotten better at saving seeds so I think I can keep it under $200 this year instead of the usual $3-500..
Our 2012 Territorial Seed catalog showed up Saturday and all the seed catalog prices having me wondering if I couldn’t just buy the veggies at the local farmers markets as cheap as or cheaper when I consider all the inputs that go into the product.