I have a simple philosophy to follow in terms of collecting decks, rather than buying them for performing.
Buy what you like, and what you can afford.
My philosophy exactly, Don.
And I have broadened "what I like" in recent years, adding a sub-collection of...anything with the Bicycle Logo...to my collection.
Most expensive deck I ever bought cost me around fifty bucks. I don't usually go higher than twenty or thirty, and I try getting them when they're new and still selling at MSRP.
Most I ever spent on a deck was $200, for a 1920s-era deck of "Palestine Play-cards" by Israeli artist Ze'ev Raban (who later designed the "Jacob's Bible Cards" published by Lion. I was offered $1,000 for them right after I bought them, and am not sorry that I declined the offer. They remain to this day my most treasured deck in my collection - and not because of their value.
I also paid around $130 (IIRC) for a patience-sized version of the aluminum deck "Cocktail", published by Hausermann. I bought it on eBay and was surprised when it arrived to find that it was patience-sized (the size had not been mentioned in the eBay description and so I had assumed it to be a poker-sized deck. When I told my collector friends about it, more than one of them told me that they would have outbid me had they known it was patience-sized, which is far rarer than the poker-sized version, which is pretty hard to come by (I recently saw one sell on eBay for around $500!)
But my days of spending this kind of money on a deck are likely far behind me now. I could afford to spend that kind of money when I was earning $100k or more a year as a computer programmer, but now, making less than a quarter of that (in Disability benefits), I balk at even spending $15 on a deck.
I'd love getting a White Centurion, a Jerry's Nugget or a Bicycle Cage Garden set, but it's unlikely I'll ever afford them, so I don't lose any sleep over it.
I keep hearing about this fabled "Cage Garden set", but have yet to see one. Probably a good thing, too - I might be tempted, or depressed that it is priced out of my reach.
I guess I'm becoming more calm and even-keeled about a lot of things in my life lately... 
It's all good - I now have the blood pressure and pulse of an athlete. Now about the rest of the body... Well, not so much! But that's OK, too.
Pay attention to that blood pressure, Don - my neglecting mine is how I ended up having the stroke which put me in this wheelchair, unable to afford some really cool decks.
