[wludavid]

I buy the cheapest bottle of Scotch with a cork.

Seriously. I picked up my methods of research and buying from my dad, and one day when I was about 16 I accompanied him to the liquor store. I watched him look over the whiskey aisle for about 2 minutes and pick up a bottle. Since he'd never shown any particular brand loyalty, I asked why pick chose that one. Very simple, he responded, "it was the cheapest bottle with a cork. It can't be that bad, and I might find something I really like."

A few years later I realized that the same philosophy can be applied to most things I research and buy - low-end Harman/Kardon receiver (back when H/K was a parlor brand, not a Big Box commodity), bookshelf PSB speakers, low-end 700 MHz iBook, 20" Sony Wega TV - all the lowest price items of the high quality brands.

The idea behind that is the high-end makers are going to start building stuff around where the "knee" of the cost/performance diminishing-returns curve starts to get steep. If you pay for just the first bit of performance up that curve, I believe you're getting the best deal.

Sorry Lube. I couldn't figure out how that answer fit into your poll.