New Wright at the cheapest prices i could find [$5-$8 per socket] isnt much cheaper than used SO. Given a few weeks for the product to pop up i could slap together a SO set in great condition for similar money. The only thing that sells for big cash is large sets, especially 1/2", and the service sets in the blow mold cases command stupid amounts also. If you shop for the individual sets then its far easier to stay in that $6-$10 per socket range.
Example. SO 6pt 3/8 metric deep set. 12 sockets [8-19mm] the going rate is around $70-$80 in auction (6.67 per socket). Cheapest Wright 355 14 sockets [6-19mm] ~$100 (7.14 per socket).
SO 6pt 1/4 metric deep set. 12 sockets [5-15mm] the going rate is around $90 (7.50 per socket). Cheapest Wright 257 9 sockets [5-13m] is around $60 (6.67 per socket).
I would not call this a "giant" leap and certainly not twice as much. The only way you can spend twice as much is if you avoid hunting for auctions all together and just use the BINs of whatever is available regardless of if its the actual street price or not.
I did the math before i purchased the giant Cman set. To do just 6pt in wright [except for 1/2" because there is no 6pt metric so 12pt was substituted] the total cost for SAE/Metric in every drive size, using the absolutely cheapest sources i could find on the web, came out to $7.25 per socket for 136 sockets. I looked at that and immedietly decided to avoid them because for that money i could essentially shop any brand i wanted and at the time i was shopping for value for dollar and the Cman set came in at ~$1 per socket. Truth be told if i wanted to spend $7.25 per socket i'd of gotten a truck brand.
Honestly, I think you're taking the best case scenario for snap-on, and the middle ground for wright prices.
I also think you're not representing the per socket cost accurately. Brand new Wright sockets average about $6-7, and Snap-on sockets average more than twice that cost. Once you get into deep sockets, the difference is
substantial, with SO sockets getting into the $20-30 range each, while Wright is still hovering around $10.
Just as an example, one of the most commonly used sockets (IMO) is a 7/16" shallow in 3/8" drive. SO wants $13, the wright socket is $5.20 from Royal supply, one of Wright's main online resellers.
People generally consider paying 50% of retail on snap-on a "good deal", but to be honest, people regularly pay MUCH more for good condition SO. I see people paying 80% of retail all day long on mint condition SO second hand. If you look at it in that light, used SO in equivalent condition easily costs twice what brand new Wright does... add the ratchets, extensions, and u-joints in, and it gets
even worse.
Snap-on asks $41 for a 3/8" universal joint which wright offers for $18-19, and which can be found routinely for $10 on ebay. A used F80 can fetch nearly three times the price of a Wright 3490, and it sure as hell isn't three times the ratchet.
Let's compare socket sets apples to apples: The Wright 312 11pc. Socket set, 1/4-7/8 6pt. shallow, can be had from Hardware sales brand new for $60 shipped, even less if you have purchased there before and have a 5% off coupon. The equivalent SO socket set, the 211FSY which contains the sames sizes and amount of sockets, costs $146 from SO, and I
rarely see it go second hand in mint condition for less than $90-100, so my claim of used snap-on being nearly twice the price of brand new Wright stands firm.
For wrench sets, you can get a Wright 907 full polish wrench set for $70 brand new from royal supply, whereas the snap-on equivalent OEX707B costs $183 new and $120 as an average price on the used market. New, the snap-on set costs more than twice as much.
Sure, you can pick out exceptions here and there, but for the tools that the average user purchases, my claim that used snap-on costs nearly twice what new Wright costs, is true in many cases. If you do a true apples to apples comparison and go new to new or used to used, then things get really crazy...
I just paid $60 for Wright deep and shallow 12pt. 3/8" drive sockets (total of 22 sockets) on the second hand market, the equivalent snap-on, even in slightly beat up condition, would have cost me
three times as much. 
I also recently paid $75 for three 1/4" drive Wright ratchets (which was an above average deal for honesty's sake), the used SO equivalent would have easily been twice that.
. Worst case scenerio you just do an exchange with AAP.
