yep. you guys are definitely way late to the building game, unfortunately. around the time the AWB expired, you could get a basically unused Romy-G kit for $50, barrel and all. build parties were really parties then, when some guys were building 4-5 rifles in one go. few made complete receivers at the time, but flats were already available from Tapco and others.
kits really went up in the last year or so. I bought a couple AK-74 kits in mid 2011 for about $100/ea. now they're almost $300 or more. same old story with all other gun stuff.
and in the next couple years people will be saying the same thing about the prices now (you missed the boat when prices were a lot better)