The Casket Markup Calculator
The casket is the single most marked-up thing your family will ever buy. In our sample of funeral homes’ own published price lists, the identical 18-gauge steel casket sells for $1,800 at one funeral home and $5,595 at another, and the same quality ships from online retailers for $1,699.
And here’s the part they mention quietly, if at all: federal law says you can buy the same box online and they must use it. No fee, no fuss.
Death hack #2
Price the box
Pick the casket they’re showing you to see what it costs at the funeral home, online, and wholesale.
Your federally guaranteed casket rights
All of this is the FTC Funeral Rule (16 CFR Part 453), in force since 1984. Funeral homes have paid six-figure penalties for breaking it.
They must accept your casket
Any casket, from any seller: Costco, Titan, Amazon, a local carpenter. The funeral home cannot refuse it or require you to be there when it arrives.
Zero handling fee
No “inspection fee,” no “storage fee,” no “third-party casket surcharge.” Charging one is a federal violation.
They can't require a casket for cremation at all
For a cremation, you're entitled to an inexpensive alternative container. Nobody needs a sealed steel casket to be cremated in.
“Protective” caskets protect the price, not the person
The FTC bars funeral providers from claiming any casket preserves a body indefinitely, because none does. The gasket is a $1,100 rubber ring.
Why the showroom works on you
Casket showrooms are laid out like jewelry stores for a reason: you’re grieving, you’re on a deadline, and spending feels like loving. The industry knows the guilt math better than you do. The counter-move is simple: decide what the box needs to do (be dignified for a day), buy that, and spend the difference on the living, or on a memorial that actually lasts.
If you skip burial entirely, the casket question mostly disappears: a direct cremation needs only a simple container, and it’s the lowest-cost option in every state.
How the numbers work
Funeral home figures come from our sample of published casket price lists from funeral homes in Maryland, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ohio, Texas, Washington and California, cross-checked against the NFDA’s published median for a metal casket (about $2,500). The sample’s own headline: the same 18-gauge gasketed steel casket sells for $1,800 at one funeral home and $5,595 at another. Retail figures are current delivered prices for equivalent-quality caskets from Costco (from $999) and Titan Casket, with model-level benchmarks confirmed by Titan (Andover $1,399; Orion with 18-gauge upgrade $1,798; Veneto $3,499). Costco equivalents often run lower, with fewer style options. Wholesale figures reflect industry reporting of 300–500% casket markups (PIRG and funeral trade consultancies). Every showroom differs; the markup structure doesn’t.
More Death Hacks