Listen here.
I don't care how you use the information I have posted in this thread. You are an adult and have your own opinion. Use it. Don't buy a lock at a locksmith, it doesn't matter to me in the slightest. I want to see theft numbers go down. That's it. Whatever works for you in your area/risk of theft.

I posted this thread because I see a lot of lock question threads pop up here, and I thought my years of experience with locks might be helpful to someone. Apparently, I was wrong. I have spent more time in this thread defending myself from nit-pickers than answering questions about locks. Regardless of what you might think, I am not in this for any sort of profit.

I do have an immense amount of knowledge regarding locks, key systems, how a MASSIVE variety of locks are made, how they can be defeated, and how they ARE BEING DEFEATED BY THIEVES regularly in the real world (chicago).

Some locks are better than others.
Buy a cheap lock, get a cheap lock.
(This goes for pretty much everything that you can buy in life, in my experience.)
That is all I will say about that.