Ebay has cheap knockoffs for 12-15 USD. I have had very good luck with my Arduino projects (an UNO controls my motion race pit). Arduino hardware is open source so there is no copyright issues with buying copies, not sure about quality though. I have only purchased Arduino made boards and have had one bad one out of three so who knows if the Chinese boards are any worse or better?
Thanks for your input PropNut. Yeah I know. I'd prefer an Italian made one, especially when it comes to quality, like you say. On some knock offs the soldering is really bad. I bet you have additional cool projects. That motion race pit sounds really amazing.
Pescador