For those complaining about the the pricing, I'm not sure what year you are living in but AFE exhausts are actually the cheapest cat back out there at under $700 shipped generally. Most of the aftermarket exhausts (Borla, Magnaflow, Flowmaster, MBRP) are all well over $1000 for a cat back.
Stainless steel ain't cheap. Factory exhaust and the slap on stuff at your local auto parts store is all aluminized steel which is far cheaper but will rust up. That is mostly what you are paying for, not sound or performance. That all being said I agree that of all the different mods you can do to a truck or car exhaust is pretty low on the list these days since it is so expensive for such little benefit but yet still many choose to replace them.
The factory should be stainless or at least majority stainless. Cheap stainless but stainless. It should be the same 409 aFe is using. The tail end may be aluminized but most all factory systems are stainless now because they don't want to deal with the emissions warranty.
For me at work, 409 vs aluminized is about a 30% difference at most. 304 would be a near double from 409 in most cases. The Borla costs double the aFe, the 304 aFe is about double the 409. The pricing scheme is fair. That being said they're using a ~$180 muffler. You're paying for the mandrel bends and the fact it should just bolt right in.
316, 321 and 347 stainless (more common in my field) are much more expensive. 409 is... well cheap. 304 is still cheap but good cheap at least. Its all very relative. (Chemical processing has a very different set of requirements for corrosion resistance)
I could do it myself for $400 with 304 stainless. Thats not including my labor, time spent mocking up everything and making it fit right. The price is fair. Though I will say the entire header back exhaust system on my corvette was $1000... but thats 2019 pricing. Looking around that price has about doubled.
