Price of Cables: a tax on the naive

When I go to CompUSA or Circuit City or someplace like that, I expect to find cables that are ridiculously overpriced. I've just gotten used to it. However, a buddy of mine just bought a HD Receiver at Circuit City and wanted to buy a 6' DVI to HDMI cable to go with it. The receiver was $200. The cable, if you can believe it, was $150. Are you kidding me??? Ok, exorbitant markup is one thing, but you could find a similar cable online for $6, yes $6 dollars. Don't believe me? Search for hdmi cable at monoprice.com. Try it at newegg.com. Of course, the sales guy at Circuit City launches into the whole, "But this cable will give you a better signal, it's gold plated, shielded, yada, yada, yada." It's DIGITAL. It's 1's and 0's! The signal is either there or it's not! There is no such thing as getting a better quality picture from having a better quality cable when you're talking about digital signals - unless the cable is so bad it actually can't transmit the signal, like the cable has been CUT or something. This is an outright crime! $150??? And the sad thing is, people will pay it. After all, it's the only such cable in the store - there's no alternative (in the store.) The same thing goes for USB cables, Cat-5 and Cat-6 network cables, and a bunch of other types of cables. Yeah, you can talk about better construction, durability, etc, etc. And I guess if that's important to you, pay the $150. Me, I'll pay $6 (ok, $10 after shipping) and watch the EXACT same quality picture. Buy your cables online - and I don't mean CircuitCity.com or CompUSA.com! Personally, I stick with Newegg.com. In my humble opinion, the best online reseller out there for just about everything technology related.