Ah, so you've never seen some of the historic "What the FAQ?!" moments where versions of the FAQ actually contradicted themselves (e.g., acid both ignoring and not ignoring hardness)? I belive they've weeded them out in the current version, but still not a document I exactly trust; when I find something in there that doesn't quite match up with one of the other rules; especially as a) the heading for that particular subsection of the Epic segment of the SRD clearly spells out that in general, if it even meets one of the criteria, it's epic - and 20^2 * 1,000 definately beats the 200,000 gp cap for non-epic items; b) there's exactly one listed core item over the 200,000 gp cap in non-epic - the Staff of Power; c) my take on the form of the article is that he's looking at which way to look at the guidelines, focusing on normal play - Epic's just a side comment, and I doubt he's thinking much about the little details on the Epic item pricing guidelines.