Nobody forces you to pay $700 for a bow. There are many under $400. I bought a starter bow a few years ago. It was a $175 PSE. It was slow as hell. but i used it until i was big enough i wouldnt outgrow a new bow. I am going to get one of the high end bows, LX or Outback, but that is because i plan on shooting it into the ground. I am going to keep it for a long time. And i dont think that the prices keep going up only becasue the manufactures are greedy. Think about all the research that goes into the bows. You are not only paying for the material and labor that was put into THAT BOW but also for all the tecnalogy in the bow. When you buy a DVD or CD it costs about $15. The burnable CDs are only about 20 cents each. But you are not only paying for the physical CD but also the music on the cd. The singer, studio time, producing, advirtising and everything.