Re: And this is news to just about nobody?
Yep. Most brand name online retailers, when you search for something defaults to "Most relevant", which generaly means it puts the stuff they most want to shift at the top of the list. But they offer a clear sort option allowing you to choose, by price or popularity to, usually price sorting by lowest->highest or highest->lowest.
Sometimes, sorting lowest->highest brings up pages of cheap accessories first, but at least they have the option and sometimes you can overcome that with better search terms, or in some cases, the site is clever enough to not list all the spares and parts when you type in Acme Spile-Trosher. Amazon, with all their online shopping expertise, all their web design savvy, all their massive processing power, can't seem to figure out how to do what some non-tech based sellers can manage.