Been there. This last time was a bit different though, because my dad was looking for a road bike that he's using to race in duathlons with. So he wanted something close to entry level, so that he could learn on and not care too much about wiping out or crashes in his first handful of races. He ended up getting a great deal on a Raleigh equipped with Shimano 105 for less than a specialized he was looking at that was equipped with Sora. Good times.