Buy local often means buying imported things from a middle man who had the foresight to source them. I find quick attach harnesses to be expensive because they weigh about 50 lbs, all steel, and sell for 1500 dollars. I have a full fabrication shop so I tend to look at material cost when pricing things, in this case way under 100 dollars. Your local welding shop may well be using Chinese steel, so much for buying local. The brackets I asked about would be hard to produce in small runs for 40 dollars each delivered to my door. I see no reason to believe that the factory producing them should be worse than a North American factory in terms of weld quality.