Did I overpay?

i recently had the check engine soon light pop up... so i took it to a mechanic i trusted and who has done good work for me in the past, he said i needed to replace all eight spark plugs and wires, and that it would cost me a little less than $500. I thought that was high myself but i decided to have it done anyways while i was on vacation. The question is how much should this cost and was this neccessary? (I have a '98 with 74k)

Your wires shouldn't have to all be replaced unless they are worn and grounding out, My truck has 81,000miles and I just replaced my plugs last month and the AC delco's were worn pretty good but my wires are fine, I checked mine and they were free of cuts and they fired fine. I used the Platinum +2 plugs in my truck and what a difference! They cost around $4.00 ea. So for me to change all 8 plugs cost about $35.00 with tax and I installed them myself, A good set of wires will cost between $50-$90 depending on what brand you buy. Im hoping he replaced some other parts as well because I think thats a pretty high price.
-Jimmy

Well, unless he went ahead and put you a new distributor cap and rotor button then the new plugs and wires are not going to do you any good. My dad replaced every bit of that, Distributor Cap, Rotor Button, plugs and plug wires on his truck (91 Silverado), and I believe the parts were about $90. So unless he did some other work, then $500 is pretty high.

my local aamco does tune ups for chevys for under 200 bucks and or u bring ur own stuff they charge about 75ish for the labor ehter way u get a 12month 12k mile warnty and people say aamco is high