I may not be on the right track, but you don't need to delimit your strings with double quotes " ". Are you aware of the difference between a single quoted string and a double?

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
$string1 = '$1.99';
$string2 = '$string1';
$string3 = "$string1";
print "$string1 \n$string2 \n$string3 \n";
[download]

results in:

$1.99
$string1
$1.99
[download]

Maybe because your constants are in double quotes, they are being interpreted?

However, your script works for me.

(Updated) Nice to see you have some good Australian wines in your list.