I agree. I guess the argument I'm making is that the name brand stuff also fails, as per the examples I gave in my earlier post, so the "strongest/safest" product is something of a mystery. Buying a brand-name product may improve your odds (maybe), but when is it overkill? I could buy tornado insurance here in Washington for that 1 in 1000 circumstance, but how practical is that? Does buying a top-of-the-line stem really provide THAT much more peace of mind? Guess it depends on the person. In my case, I doubt I'd feel any less safe with a mid-range eBay or LBS stem.