How come Garmin charge xtra for blanks for what is basically an SD card.
Is there a work around for this, can I get them elsewhere?
You essentially pay for the branding. You are better off getting SD cards else where. Like most devices accepting SD cards, they work well with the major brands out there.
Besides buying SD cards with preprogrammed data, is there anyway to use a blank card? I have a 4 gig sd, but my garmin says i have 500+ megs free with all things loaded.