bsa,
Yeah, I would certainly balk at paying over $30 a pound! But I don't buy powder at sporting goods stores--or very little anyway. Instead I order them on-line in 8-pound jugs.
Buying on-line normally requires paying a hazardous materials fee, usually around $25 per order, which amounts to around $3 per pound if ordering an 8-pounder, though I usually order more than one 8-pounder, or some primers as well, so the price per product goes down. But lately there have been a bunch of low or no-hazmat sales, along with free shipping on larger orders.
I just checked the several sites I order from, and found the average difference in price between IMR4350 and IMR4451 was around $2 a pound--and I'm willing to pay that much for the difference in performance between the two powders. (In fact I would be willing to pay that much for the difference in performance in H4350 and IMR4350.) The best deal I found on IMR4451, which included a break on the hazmat charge, came out to around $23 a pound.
But I didn't order any, since I already have plenty on hand, ordered when I found similar deals.
