I paid 40 to 80 cents each for these which seems fair, reasonable and honest for stainless steel washers. I bought them at brick and mortar retail stores and the sellers didn't seem to have a problem selling them for that price. Like I said, the one place actually weighed them first to determine that 40 cents was the fair, decent and honest price for a stainless steel flat washer of that size. That said, I'll figure out another solution before I'll pay $3.00 to $4.00 a piece plus $7.99 for shipping for flat washers just because they come from a "Home Brew" supplier. Profit is one thing - gouging is another.
It's always hard to know what a "fair" price is. When you consider the time of the person helping you or filling the order, single-piece prices have to be up there to recover costs.
Imagine you're paying someone just $9/hour as a clerk, or in shipping, or whatever. That's 15 cents a minute, and doesn't include FICA, doesn't include the HR costs of keeping such a person on staff. If that person helps you for just 5 minutes, the business has just paid them 75+ cents. On a single 40-cent washer, it may appear as if they made a profit, but I assure you, they did not.
Same with shipping costs. Spend some time actually wrapping a package for shipment, and you'll see that shipping isn't generally a big moneymaker. You have not only the cost of postage/shipping, you have the box, the labeling process, taping it up, if it needs cushioning then you have bubble wrap or something or other.....it adds up.
It might appear that someone is gouging you but more likely, they're breaking even if they're lucky. They just can't risk turning you down as a customer even if all you want is a single washer.
BTW: my trick--and I'll bet lots of people here use it--is to find other things I want/need that can be covered under the shipping cost, especially if it's a flat-rate shipping cost. That spreads the shipping cost out over many items, not just a single inexpensive item. Maybe there's some vinyl or silicone tubing you need, or some worm clamps, or....whatever.