The best dogs I have ever fed were bought as pups, for 250 bucks. They werent good dogs because of the price and i didnt purchase them because they were cheap. I did my homework and made an educated purchase. Lucky me, I can think of three very nice animals that apply to this situation. One of those being the best dog I have ever had the pleasure to feed.
Now, the flip side of this coin. Ironically, I have culled damn near every single $1K pup I have purchased. Its just the way it has worked out for me and there is no logical reason for this. When I was purchasing stock, I followed the same guidelines for the cheap pups as I did the higher priced ones.