"10 year registrations are typically only $80"

Where are you seeing $80 for 10 years (not doubting just curious).

$80 is below the cost that the registrar pays (for .com) to the registry and ICANN variable fees. Not to mention the cost for credit card processing as a variable fee.

Consequently in order to charge that amount the registrar has to make money in other places (could be to charge for things that are free elsewhere as one example).

Cheapest I've seen is $98 for 10 years (Dynadot), which is still not bad.

nearlyfreespeech charges 9.49USD per year so that is not too far off for a respected registrar

They are a reseller, not a registrar.

http://faq.nearlyfreespeech.net/full/accredited

With inflation that's cheaper than $80 for 10 years. :)