SB 224's $60 shipped from Europe (off Ebay)
Burton Speed 158 Wide $150 shipped (off Ebay)
Burton Race Plates $40 shipped (off BOL)
My first setup was a whopping $250. And it worked great. Still does actually. Got my brother-in-law on it for our last day of the seaon and he had a blast.
This season I'm using TD1's ($125 from BOL) and I'm working on some custom-fit Burton Ice boots that I picked up in the offseason (brand new-$50 shipped off Ebay) that I'm adding in my form-fit footbeds ($40 at local ski resort) and molding some liners as well ($75 shipped off BOL).
So for this season (my 2nd) I'm looking at:
RT173GS ($200 shipped off BOL)
TD1's ($125 shipped off BOL)
Burton Ice + footbeds + Thermoflex ($50 + $40 + $75)
That's $490 for custom fit boots, bomb proof bindings, and IMHO a very fun board. Leaves room for SES $$ and possibly a board purchase after I demo everything at SES.
Also I'd like to add that name brand soft boot equipment is not cheap either. I mean Burton boards are $500, bindings $150-250, boots $100-200. It really depends on if you want stuff that will do the job or stuff that is the best...
Edit: Obviously my opinion is that lack of hardbooters is not because it's expensive. I think it's from lack of exposure. Let's take the local ski swap that I went to last weekend for an example: Out of 500+ new/used snowboards I found two carving boards (both very old). Out of 500+ pairs of snowboard boots I found 1 pair of hardboots. Mostly all of the used boards had bindings and they were selling bindings seperately. Not a single pair of hard boot bindings and neither of the used boards had bindings. So not even a single complete hardboot setup out of all that ski/snowboard equipment...Sad