Well, replacing that battery is not that easy, I assumed 30 minutes labor in total, the battery needs to be shipped, too, and there is tax, so out of $199 the battery itself was perhaps $100 or so.

In other words, if I were to do this elsewhere, I would need to buy the battery, ship it, and pay someone (or perform the task myself) to do the replacement. The $199 price seemed entirely reasonable, especially as this was in California at the time.

I think the price seems "outrageous" only if you ignore the costs of labor, shipping and taxes.