+1 With a self imposed limit no bike can cost more than an entry road bike at a LBS. And when one comes in, one goes out (I am a little behind on that score, got a couple of bikes I need to make decisions on).

Hard to get that grail bike with my price cap, although I got some nice ones, and nothing came close to my spending limit.

I started with a couple of real basic bikes, a 1975 UO8 and a mid 1990s Trek 800 MTB, so its been fun moving up in quality.

1987 Schwinn Prologue (9 speed DA)
1999 Quintana Roo Aerial (9 speed DA)
Unknown year Colnago Master Lite (9 speed Ultegra)
1992 Paramount Series 5 (8 speed Shimano 600 STI)
1989 Univega Alpina Pro MTB
2000 Trek 520 (stock)

Decisions needed on several more that are stacking up.