Jesse James, that's what I thought too and I had this idea in my little pea brain that someone was scamming, but after much reading and listening, I gave it a shot, the radio itself is about a hundred more than a 257HP. But it's built in by GoodWill, the same company that use to make the S-9 when they were a great radio. It has a different audio circuit, 8 pin Icom style mic, quite a bit different recieve with an added filter for when the skips too loud, all channels are changed at 5 not 10kc incremints, all of the frequencies are in a row, no banks no A B C etc. There is a ton or shielding over anything that would be bothered by or give out stray RF, it's really a well thought out, upgrade of a 257. Has a built in fan that comes on with transmit and stays on for about 45 seconds after unkeying, or longer if it gets hot. Straight out of the box it did 55 watts on AM, FM, SSB with an " AUDIO", and I have had a few 257's HP and non HP models, the only thing I did was buy an Icom HM- 36 mic. The stock one is too small for he to hold, I did get an adapter for 8 Icom to 4 Cobra, and tried a few of the Turners and stock mics that I have, the Turners were too loud and the old stock mics I have sounded ok but with the elecret condenser HM-36 the audio really sounds full and mid range loud. So don't judge this book by it's cover, it's a lot more than a 257 and I've had it 2 weeks now and still like it a lot, besides it's still working not like the last 257HP that I bought.