Virtual Crib Shopping

So I started my online crib shopping today. I started by looking up articles on a new baby on a budget. The first article I read was all concerned about the cribs that Angelina & Brad use with their twins. Who cares? But here's this darling crib that looks similar for only $659. Yes this is quite the bargain considering that Angelina's was about $3000, but what about all us real people in the world? I'm looking at the Target site and there are two cribs for $150 for sale. That's more what I was thinking.

But after reading the reviews on the $150 cribs, perhaps I do want the $250 range of cribs. These reviews have to be taken with a grain of salt though. I started only reading about cribs who had more than 10 reviews, because most of the crib reviews out there are from soon to be parents, not actual parents. Because the soon to be parents haven't actually used their crib yet, all they can comment on is how easy it was to put together, how pretty it is, and if they think their un-tried product is sturdy. I started scanning the end of these reviews for phrases like "can't wait to try it out" and skipping that review entirely. Why would you write a review if you haven't actually used the product for its intended purpose?

I completely understand why there aren't more reviews by parents. With a first time parent of an infant, who has time to care about a review? This makes me even grateful for the parents who have tried the product and THEN reviewed it.

Reality is that I'll likely purchase a crib on craigslist. But I like the craigslist descriptions that give me enough info to go back to the Target site and look at the reviews there.