ha ha ha... I saved up a bunch of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ by no means am I rich.
I was thinking of getting a very nice offset that will last a lifetime for a couple of years now, but to me the Offsets just use a lot of fuel and you do get quite a bit of wasted heat (I owned a COS). That's why I went vertical. After mulling around a Backwoods G2 Chubby $1400.00 roughly, I thought the cooking chamber may not be big enough for those cooks where I may be feeding the neighborhood. So I ran into the Humprey's line of vertical smokers and I get a lot more room for roughly the same price.
I also like the fact that it is insulated versus a Weber Smokey Mountain. Which in itself is a GREAT vertical smoker, but I had the money so I pulled the trigger. The customer service I have received so far is comparable to the amazing customer service of Pit Barrel. So I feel damn good supporting a small company.
Hey who knows, I may want to cook competitively some day. It would be fun to look into it.
(Pulled from another forum... not mine. Pictures are from Dex on bbq-brethren.com)