My thoughts are I am in a metal band, I'm not actually that good and dont spend as much time as I should practising, therefore I couldnt really justify spending a lot of money on a bass.
I have three basses, a BC Rich Warlock which the band bought me for my birthday, a Stagg version of the Rich and a Wesley Flying V, I love all of them and would never part with any of them. They do exactly what I need them to do, they sound really good in my opinion and if anything happenend to them they wouldnt cost the eartht o replace.