As I've said before, I'm not a car guy... but isn't there a kind of hierarchy of car brands (or marques)? So among the GM brands, Chevy was the cheapest and Cadillac was the most expensive, and so on, right? And this is true even when there is no affiliation between the companies, where a Mercedes Benz is generally recognized as a more expensive (and better?) car than a Volkswagen, and so on. With this in mind, OP's question is not totally off the wall.
The problem is that most of the "brand name" bicycle companies made a wide range of bikes. You can't compare Raleigh, Peugeot, Miyata, Nishiki, or even Schwinn without knowing the model.
The OP asked which brand we'd jump on at a yard sale or classified ad and my answer, any LBS bike at the right price, still stands.
I like your question better, which brands do I search for on CL or ebay knowing I'd pay full price and taking into account the models. For me, that's a different answer. BTW, it would be Nishiki ( higher models only) and Bianchi (any model as long as it fits, a bonus for Celeste).