Monitors are always priced cheaply, largely because they're very cheap to make and they're a way of ensnaring you to purchase the far more expensive strips. A bit like inkjet printers and cartridges.
The dirty secret is that every monitor and its accessories are free. Ring up any company that makes one and tell them you're looking for a new monitor and would like to try out [insert monitor name here] and just brazenly say they can post it to you. If the mook at the end of the phone umms and aahs, just say that in that case you won't be using their products or interested in using their test strips in future and you'll go with a different brand. They'll change their tune pretty quickly and you can be outrageously cheeky and ransom them for the cables and software as well.
So back to the original point
I wouldn't read anything into the shelf price of a meter, it's essentially a meaningless token figure that bears no relationship whatsoever to the quality of the meter. Test it against your current meter. At the very least you've got 100 tests for $4.99, which is an absolute bargain.
