I do wonder why simple products are often expensive. I think our microwave cost like $30-40 new, but it's got probably 20 buttons and a clock and the spinner and all that junk, and at the time I couldn't find any cheap options that were simple, only ones that were (like this) several times more than the cheapies. You'd think the one with nothing but a dial and no spinner (so, no motor, simpler design for the interior, no extra material cost for the glass plate, and so on) would be as cheap as it gets, but no. Microwaves don't even have the "because spying and ads offsets the price of more-complex sets" excuse that TVs do.