If you guys think $80 for a gallon of Ben Moore Aura, Sherwin-Williams Duration/Emerald or $60 for Behr Dynasty/Marquee for a house is madness, just wait until you go to a auto body supply shop and ask for the price of a pint of mid-grade basecoat of either PPG or Cromax persuasion. For kicks, price out Nexa Autocolor 2K, Standox/Spies Hecker or BASF Glasurit. Sikkens isn’t as available as it was in the 1990s - AkzoNobel doesn’t give the US market the same attention as Europe. There was rumor PPG wanted to buy AkzoNobel(much like the rumor that Warren Buffett’s Benjamin Moore was going to buy Axalta, the former DuPont automotive/industrial paint division) but that would give PPG a near monopoly on car paint and a definite monopoly on the aviation paints/sealants business.
And that’s not including reducer(for solventborne paints - PPG Envirobase/Nexa Aquabase uses deionized water with a surfactant), hardener if needed and the ancillary products like primers, clearcoat, prep chemicals, and the hardener for primer/clear.