Thank you for the response, it is appreciated. Yea the shipping is like $400 but if you buy $5k or more in one shot, it's free from Rogue. I really want it to be quality and American made and am willing to pay more to do so (which is why I am primarily looking at these two vendors). I'm going to get on the phone with them and see if I can haggle a little.
I've had my eye on Craigslist for a few months but most of the stuff on there is junk. I did score 800lbs of nice plates for a good price but that's about it. It seems to me that people that are serious enough to drop the coin on the good stuff hold onto it. Most of the stuff on there is from the jabroni's that bought a bowflex as part of their new years resolution and used it for 2 weeks.
I am a mechanical engineer by trade and have all the 3D CAD tools and knowledge to design this stuff and have it made, but getting the time to do so is the hard part. I do consulting on the side in addition to my 9-5 and with what I make doing that, it makes more sense to buy it then design and manage the build. Also, when I start adding up the cost of the materials, powder coat, quality hardware, and fabrication, there isn't a whole lot of savings there. I think the real savings comes from fabricating it yourself which I unfortunately do not have the tools to do so.