It's funny you mentioned that. I've been noticing the same thing. My guess is that Verizon puts less value on the slim margin of the monthly rate for added lines on a family plan and most retailers pass the cost on to you. I was looking at stuff on Wirefly, Amazon, etc and noticed that additional family line upgrades generally had the worst pricing, and it wasn't a huge break over the full 2 year pricing through Verizon. In some cases, Verizon was cheaper with specials/sales. I did some searching around and found this practice not to be the case at Best Buy. They seem to treat 2 year upgrades the same regardless of line. So my wife wanted the Samsung Continuum which was on special, and I was able to get it FREE with a 2 year upgrade. I was psyched because whether through Verizon or anyone else, I couldn't do better than $79.99. I highly recommend keeping an eye on Best Buy's sales.