You know, since I joined LYN and ventured into the A&D category, I've seen unreasonable, or even considered absurd quotes for websites that could be easily made with something called Netobjects Fusion (USD 110)
What I don't get is, what makes these prices so "special"? No, writing in notepad/ elegant code should not be a reason, and it's not like you paid RM2000 for royalty free images.
RM500-600 for a static site... ouch.
Dynamic sites... RM1000+... WTF...
Something that uses Perl scripting+ Dynamic content+ lots of bells and whistles...

Well if the logic goes, I should be making millions on art pieces at 15yrs old.
(I do it for love, and my stuff isn't awful at all. Ouch?)
I don't use Fusion, it's just an interesting contrast to bring up.

And for stock photography...
Take Taiwan-based ImageDJ and Imagefarm as comparisions:
I-DJ has awsome images at >USD100 per collection.
IF has awful scans of what seemed to be half-hearted images taken using an APS (well, this is not true But it annoys me almost to make it true) at USD200+.

On the other hand, Digital Vision (part of Getty images now) sells most of it's CDs at USD500+. The quality is awsome, but is there anyone forking out money for 100 images of the same theme?

Money doesn't always get you what you expected. Lots of people don't charge HYPER for more talent, which would be the result of the majority of internet projects (Wikipedia, anyone?)

And no, using a cheaper app doesn't mean the website would deteriorate in quality. It might appear differently in different browsers, but you could get some more code in to counter that. Simillarly, it doesn't give a gurantee that Dreamweaver would output unbreakable code even with its premium price tag.
I'd love to get Digital Vision stock collections, but IF ImageDJ collections do the job well enough, who gives a damn if they shot pictures without using SLRs?

Which is, why would I get a person who charges RM2000 for my personal flash site when a person who does it under RM200 outperforms him/her? So it HAS to be the latter person wouldn't give a damn about what I want, what I need? Nope.

TBH I might be underestimate web designers' work. But I care for how the website works- in design first. And what I saw definately does NOT justify the price.

Importance of Creative value is much what I lacked from the previous posts, I apologize for that. Maybe this should be a complaint on how designers in MYS are overworked and underpaid (since they were the references I used. )
I can get the values of how much large multimillion corporations like Fuji Xerox spend on an identity, but somewhere below that is a big pool of grey. To parse it as another way, most clients would expect something professional at a price higher than a copy of the -professional- software used to make it. (Unless the client's an idiot)

But just as an interesting point, if it is a business, why does pricing look like a small issue? Competition? Most people here seem scarily confident of their abilities...

(Just in case anyone's not getting what I'm relating to, you should know that websites used to pay companies for placing ads. )