Speaking of ISBN Numbers

In the United States, there’s only one place to buy ISBN numbers: Bowkers. Bowkers has an unquestioned monopoloy on these numbers. It costs pennies to generate an ISBN number but the least expensive price for a single ISBN number is $125. I do realize that there’s some infrastructure around the ISBN system that will raise the cost above mere pennies, but $125 for a single computer-generated number lays a punitive burden on self-publishers who are not likely to never need hundreds or thousands of numbers. I’m speaking as a self-publisher.

My question is why are there no other options for buying ISBN numbers? Here’s the Bowker price list to mull over.