I'm not sure where you can get the thrust and races for $2, but I'll go with what you say for my argument.

You ARE paying exactly $2 for the $2 bearing. The remaining $23 is for the machined delrin collar that makes it work. In my case I paid $28 for those collars and feel they were well worth the money. Yes, I probably could make them myself, but it just ain't worth the time sourcing the material and setting up the lathe to do two or three of them when someone has already invented that "wheel".

Scottrik