For what it's worth, COF, I only rediscovered travel recently and was horrified at the extra charges for a Vietnamese visa (my first real visa). I can't recall the exact charges, but it included something like:

Buying a photo
Visa cost
Processing Fee
Registered post to the Embassy
Registered post back

It more than doubled the price of a visa.

Several visas later, this would no longer raise an eyebrow.