Someday, just for the heck of it, I want to take an ARF, use it as a pattern to build one from materials I have on hand, and compare the relative price. Granted, I won't have the volume prices for materials that a mass builder gets, but I think I can make a pretty fair comparison. I am confident that my finished price will be at or slightly less than the ARF, time involvement will probably be higher, but even now, the quality of worksmanship should be considerably higher, as will the emotional satisfaction when it gets it's maiden flight.