So don't beat yourself up over it Michael
Did you look into getting the exhaust wrap ?
Regarding the price of the book, when I first saw one on eBay at orders of magnitude greater than its original price, I was a bit shocked. I don’t actually know what price any of them changed hands at on eBay… people can list things at any price they want that doesn’t mean they sell at that price.
If you look at some of my recent posts, you’ll realize that I have much larger exhaust issues than worrying about wrapping at the moment! Right now I am waiting for my engineer mechanic friend to free up time and space on his lift to address this issue for me.