CD-RW price Difference vs. quality

[Paradoxx]

I can buy a Verbatim 52x24x52 CD-RW drive at Best Buy for $20 after rebates, or I can buy a Lite On at Newegg for $50. Why would I buy the Lite On? I know that all these people buying them on Newegg have a reason. Is it just because of the rebate wait? I mean this is a CD-RW drive how much of a quality difference can there be? I am asking in general here those 2 were just examples.

 

[WTT0001]

Verbatim CD-RWs can be Lite-on rebadges. So, depending on what one you actualy get, there may be no difference at all

Quote from a thread in the Hot Deals Forum:

"I'm fairly certain you can determine which boxes contain a Lite-On drive. The boxes that have a 12-digit numeric serial number will likely be Lite-Ons (something like 230045800657). The boxes that have an alphanumeric S/N (like 2CDM65460027) probably won't contain a Lite-On. Cendyne does this and Verbatim is part of the same company.

You can tell if the drive is a Lite-On once you open it up if the faceplate looks similar to the one pictured on the box. I think these drives come with Verbatim firmware but you can flash it to the latest Lite-On firmware if you're so inclined (although that may cause the bundled version of Nero not to work with the drive)."