At the store I hit in SD it was more around $23 if you averaged cow vs. latigo with latigo being the higher priced stuff.

That's why I picked up the cow hide 'scrap' blank to practice on. I was going to cut it anyway, might as well just pay $0.06 / oz. for a smaller strip.

However, it's this sort of research and re-learning that makes me wish I had paid attention in middle school shop classes where we worked on leather, wood, and what not.