Call me Grumpelstiltskin

Three requests to commission the same prop within the space of two hours? What's this all of a sudden? Normally I'd take it as flattery, but right now I'm not in the mood. I mean, I have a certain bit of cosplay skill but it's taken me years to get it. If I'm going to commit my hard-earned experience and sacrifice the wee bit of spare time I have to myself, it's not going to be to make a fine prop at a dirt-cheap price for a newb with zero cosplays to their name. I've got a career; I don't make props for money. I make them to improve my abilities and to help contribute to other people's cosplay. If I were going to start mass-producing them, I'd sell them for well into the triple digits, just to compensate me for the sheer drudgery of it. And that would put them well outside of these kids' meager grasp. I know why these kids are asking me to make the prop, because I said the prop cost only $50 in materials. I said that to show that you can make quality props for a decent price, if you put enough TIME into it. What something costs to make and what it sells for are two very different numbers. I'm not about to start selling my work to complete strangers for at-cost or cheaper. Hell, I might as well start giving away my organs if I'm going to be that generous.
That's something that's always irritated me about the whole commissioning thing. All the people that I'd be delighted to help, cosplayers I admire or that I see could use that little extra boost to be awesome, they're experienced and capable enough that they don't need to ask for commissions. But the kids who have no idea of the costs in money or time that go into cosplay, they're banging down my door continuously. If that makes me an elitist, whatever. Both my spare time and cosplay opportunities are very scarce right now, which makes requests like these especially insulting.