And you're complaining...lol? $500 is the price of a good performance valve job these days. And that includes nothing more than the valve job. Wait until they get them and the seats and guides are trashed, and/or the valves are too far gone. They go up from there. I generally expect to pay $1200 to get a set of iron heads correctly done to make power and last well. Usually, it's a few bucks more depending on the work required. SOmething else to ask about is cutting the guides and spring seats down to run more performance-oriented cams later. The valve job is the time to do that work.