Ok, the idea that ALL weapons of a given type should be expensive  is bad.  If our characters can start with skill in a given weapon, yet it is so expensive that there is no realistic way for that character to have ever even held a cheap version of that weapon, where does any realism kick in?  

And also to think about balance issues.  If weapons are all expensive, then a monk style character that would use unarmed combat would have a definate advantage.  I\'m sure there is a similar argument about magic, so I won\'t mention that, but the realms of armed combat should not be made so difficult to do because someone would prefer to use a weapon over a bare fist.