14K for a design and 5K for the initial legal work seems pretty steep to me for a completely new, unproven web. Surely it could have been done an order of magnitude cheaper for similar quality, no?
It could have been done for cheaper, especially legal. However, I don't think the design would have been as good for cheaper. Keep in mind those were "retail", I had some "friend discounts" I didn't want to make public.
Legal is tough, the weight loss industry can be kind of scary because people can get hurt. It is especially scary if you are doing something "weird". Most new websites or businesses will not need a custom TOS, PP, etc. They can tweak one that already exists.
I definitely think the design could of been cheaper. You have to hire people for their strengths and it seems these guys' strength is design. I would then outsource the PSD2HTML to a company like P2H.com, or a freelance (who would probably charge less!).
I imagine the design could of been done for half the price, if you spent a bit of time looking on Dribbble or similar, and outsourced the code.
I've come from a background of having to find the cheapest person, but also equally as high in quality, and you find some great places and tricks.
Anyway I'm glad he shared the data.