ftg fittings

I was at Hd to pick up a couple of 1/2" copper connectors (thread to sweat). The first one I found was over $5. I knew copper had gone up but I couldn't believe it was that much. Thinking it was a mistake I kept looking and found one for a little over a dollar. The one marked $5 was labled ftg the other one something like cm. The ftg had a longer sweat collar and maybe a heavier gage but not by much. There was a 3/4" connector for about $1.60 with alot more copper than either one. As usual the HD guy didn't have a clue. What is an ftg fitting?

Thanks in advance.

The piece marked "ftg" means fitting adapter. That means the sweat end of the piece will go INTO another regular copper fitting, such as a tee, elbow, etc. Regular fittings....the copper pipe goes INTO the fitting.

These pieces always cost considerably more. You would have to ask god why.

The cost more because they don't make very many of them. When the machine is set up to make them, the cost of doing so is spread out over fewer salable pieces. Therefore, there is much less economy of scale when these are produced (as well as stored and distributed), which forces them to charge more for each one produced to recover their costs.

That's probably it , sr. Notice on the shelf in HD that the ftg adapter is in a box of perhaps 10 or 25, but it is the same size box that they pack 100 or so of an elbow or coupling.