You're close. What you're missing is that paying more often gets you better products. I wanted to buy a washing machine years ago. I went on the big box store websites to see what was out there. Everything had one or two star ratings. Big name brands had people talking about how their machine failed catastrophically after a year or two. It wasn't just one or two brands, it was all of them. I ended up paying about 3x for a washer that has lasted 10 years and is still working fine. The brand was Speed Queen and you couldn't buy it in any big box store. They did have major brands in the same price range, but reviews said they all had major quality issues. Had I just walked in to Sears or Best Buy, I would have been screwed regardless of my budget.