pwillard:
To me, there is a difference between the what I see as the commercial Weller units and hobbyist grade. I think that is all any of us was pointing out. To get a good Weller, you will pay more than your mentioned "budget" number.That said, you really should never go cheap on your tools you will use all the time. Example: If you decide to save a few hundred dollars on an o-scope for example, you will later kick yourself when you realize what you can't do with it and then ultimately you will desire the scope you should have purchased... making the one you did purchase... a waste of money.
While good advice, it is really dependent upon what is meant by all the time. Someone who only uses a soldering iron as a hobbyist, is well founded to get an iron in the price range of the OP, but someone who is using one 'all the time' would be much better served by something like a metcal that would be at least a magnitude more expensive...