Mike;

Point #1. The $750 price in Detroit for an unknown manufacturer's 'house' brand is just short of the ~$900 for a quality hand built LA box from a guy like Danny Dyson and the le Capitaine brand.

Point #2. Think 'pawn shops.' Every pawn broker in LA has low-to-high quality used boxes for sale. Prices on my last visit for locally made boxes started at $350 for a 'beater' to $800 for a great second-hand box. Call around...

Point #3. eBay, yeah a risk--but Jim Pettijohn on this board has posted a couple of audio clips on a Chinese factory job that didn't sound bad. I think he also said it set him back about $160 plus shipping for a new box.

Point #4. Decide the maximum you can spend-- and don't let anything else confuse the spending plan by nudging your price higher. Avoid 'paralysis from analysis.' Do something...

Point #5... there ain't no point 5.

Peace,
Griff

Yeah...good post.
I have to put the breaks on sometimes. I wish I was in LA ...but thats not possible...
Its hard because you don't want to buy junk or something that will hold you back later...but you can nudge yourself up $100-$200 at a time till you're way higher than you ever intended on spending.

I learned from guitar..that you get what you pay for . But there are also guitar "geeks" that play $2,000 instrumentts that are only average players. You can always spend more money.
Wish gas wasn't so expensive right now.
Id drive around down there . Probobly be an interesting trip. I think its about 1,200 miles form me.
But at $320 a gallon...its not cheap to take road trips anymore