I believe that the gentleman was saying that for $470, he could get bench-grade C & J - though certainly not from a US based brick-and-mortar source, as even in London, in the Jermyn St. store, most all of the bench-grade offerings were somewhere just north of 400 GBP, which should be more on the order of $600+ from a US source. Possibly one can order C & J via the Internet from a source that will subtract the VAT to come down to that price, but one needs to know exactly how a particular model of shoe will fit to do that confidently.
The price point for the shoes seems to be more in line with competing with Carmina.