re expensive v. cheap
When I said "cheap" in my above post, I didn't mean to get a cheap version of a good tool. I meant, like the example I gave, to chose for a cheap solution over an expensive one. And in case of the Domino and the dowel marker, a VERY cheap vs a VERY expensive one. You can make very good joints with dowels and working with a simple marker isn't a hassle at all. I've made quite a number of cabinets that way. $790 is quite a difference I'd say. Only worth it if you're professional or a guy who's got enough money anyway.
It's a common practice for people to look for hobbies to spend their leisure time. It is also common for people to try different hobbies out until they've found the right one. All in all, people change hobbies a lot. And very often they spend a whole lot of money for nothing because after three months they decide it's not their thing. Or some other reason.
For instance, I'm a pretty advanced guitar player. About 10 years ago I decided it was time to expand my horizon by taking up the keyboard. I bought an expensive professional full size motion sensitive keyboard. Heck, I already knew music was my thing, so I'd thought it smartest to invest in a good thing right away. I liked it. It went very well, at first. But I had to stop because my finger couldn't take it. One of the bones in my hand that lead to the smallest finger was once - unknowingly - broken a long time ago and had healed in the wrong way. It never was a problem when playing guitar because guitar playing doesn't take much force, even if you play very fast and intense. But this was totally different for the keyboard. This thing required a lot of force, especially with the wide stretches you have to make. So my hand started to hurt like hell and I had to give it up. Now I got this expensive thing here standing unused.
Or my brother. Last year he decided he wanted to make those plastic model kits of WW2 tanks and sorts. He went crazy, spent like 1000 euros in 2 months on 30 or 40 kits. In the end he got bored with it, didn't finish even one and now he stored them all away at our mom's place. Most of them unopened.
And this happens a lot. All I'm saying is, if you're starting out, don't go overboard spending a lot of money right away. Sometime I get the feeling, when people take up a hobby, going to the store and buying the necessary tools is the real hobby and not that thing what you're supposed to do with them after you bought them. By the way, that's a hobby that runs old very fast.
And when you guys talk about resale value, well, maybe that's true for America, because Festools are so rare over there, but it certainly isn't like that here. If you buy a new tool in the store and you want to sell it next day, unused, expect to get no more than 70% new value at the most. If you're lucky. Here, everybody lives no more then 15 minutes away from the next Festool dealer, they know how to find the store themselves. But besides Festool, I think that in America you also don't get the full price back.
It is better to find out if you really like something and then buy the stuff you might need, than the other way around. I think, if you get frustrated because the tool isn't good enough for the job, you're not cut out for that type of stuff anyway. Because if you really want to, you can also get marvelous results with cheap stuff. It is not the tool that makes the piece, it's YOU who makes the piece.