As someone who works in Marketing, I certainly understand irrational pricing (have you noticed now days at Walmart the "Big jugs" are more expensive per ounce than the little ones?) (those aren't big jugs of oil I'm referring to, but juice, olive oil, condiments, etc.)? Its because people buy the big ones "assuming" it's cheapest.

Well on topic- I bought a front crank seal at advance. It was a whopping $34 (no joke!). "Damn" I thought, but I bought it anyway... so I jump on the forums and its recommended to me that I replace the water pump seal and such too.

So i go back, return the front crank seal, and buy the whole kit that has the SAME crank seal, plus all the other gaskets. How much did it cost me? Less than NOTHING. They refunded me $16!

Thats right, the kit with all the seals in it including the crank seal was $17.99, while the crank seal alone was $34.

I asked the guy how often thats the situation, and he said its pretty common actually.

I guess if it's true with Ketchup, it's true with auto parts! Pricing isn't always completely rational, so be sure to price things out in different ways and you can save some cash!